Respite
by maninblue88
Summary: After walking away from the cult, the Junior Deputy later becomes the new Sheriff of Hope County, MT following the retirement of Sheriff Earl Whitehorse. As life there starts to get back to normal, he and the remaining deputies (some old, some new) realize that some remnants of Project Eden's Gate still linger not only in Hope County, but around the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Respite  
**A "Far Cry 5" fanfiction story by: maninblue88

Warnings: Certain obvious spoilers for "Far Cry 5" are present in this story.

_[Author's Note: This story is primarily based on the video game, "Far Cry 5". With the exception of certain characters, all things associated with "Far Cry 5" and the "Far Cry" series in general are the property of Ubisoft and any other related entities. A certain chapter of the story will also feature references to the seminal game in the "Shenmue" series, which is the property of Sega and any other related entities. I am a fan of both these games and their related franchises. The entirety of this story is basically my vision of how things should've turned out following the events of Far Cry 5's conditional "Walk Away" ending. Personally, I'm not too excited about "Far Cry: New Dawn" with it's bleak-seeming plot and desolate landscape, but I do hope the game does well and by no means intend to offend those of you who are excited about it.]_

_This story in its entirety is Rated "M" for language and violence_

**Chapter 1: Yes, They Walked Away (Recap)**

In the late spring of 2018, a heavily armed and radical religious cult known as "Project Eden's Gate" overtook the vast, rustically beautiful landscape of Hope County, Montana. The cult was led by maniacal self-styled pastor Joseph "The Father" Seed, his two biological siblings John and Jacob Seed, and one adopted sister, Faith Seed. Together with their hundreds of recruited members, known to their opposers as "Peggies", they forced Hope County's citizens out of their homes and businesses, hijacked a substantial portion of their utilities and resources, and aimed to make Hope County an entirely separate compound of Eden's Gate followers. Each of the Seed siblings had their own unique way of forcing people into compliance. Joseph used his self-serving perversions of the Bible in his attempts to sway people to his way of thinking, John used kidnapping, isolation, and threats of death, Jacob used psychological torture in his attempts at mind control, and Faith used her own handmade plant-based hallucinogenic drug "Bliss" to intoxicate people and bend their minds to both her will and the control of the cult.

Law enforcement were not at all willing to take any of this lying down. While the Seeds and the other Peggies were wreaking havoc all over the county, a small team of law enforcement officers covertly worked to investigate and bring formal charges to officially bring down Eden's Gate. Several members of the Hope County Sheriff's Department either abruptly resigned out of fear for their lives or were forcefully recruited by the cult. The only people left to maintain law and order in the cult's shadow were Sheriff Earl Whitehorse, an older Native American lawman who was only days from retirement when the cult arrived, spirited female Deputy Joey Hudson, a lifelong Hope County native, tough but likeable male Deputy Staci Pratt, Deputy Chris Shelby, an equally affable veteran law enforcement officer from the close by city of Missoula, and Junior Deputy Troy Harrison, known as "Rookie" or "Rook" to his colleagues. The sheriff's department had received help in their investigation into the cult from Deputy U.S. Marshal Cameron Burke, until Burke was kidnapped and his mind controlled by Faith Seed and her "Bliss" drug.

Junior Deputy Troy Harrison was the newest member of the department and the last member hired by Sheriff Whitehorse prior to the cult's arrival and the subsequent forced staff shortages. Despite his low rank and accepted "Rookie" status, he was actually a very experienced and accomplished law enforcement officer. The kindhearted and intelligent Vermont native had spent a decade as an FBI agent, were he trained and worked as a behavioral profiler and forensic science specialist, before leaving to join the Chicago Police Department, where he spent two years as a Detective working the Homicide beat and later spent a brief period of time in the newly-formed Cyber Crime Task Force. A botched investigation consequently sent Harrison to the West Coast where he spent four and a half years, eventually working his way up to the position of Chief Detective for a city police department.

Ultimately growing tired of the city pace and wanting to avoid what could've been inevitable burn out, Harrison decided to take a low-ranking position in Hope County, Montana, as the county's geography and landscape reminded him of his roots in bucolic Vermont. He was also a seasoned martial artist, having trained in a very distinctive style of Ju-Jitsu while living as an exchange student in Japan during college.

When the Seeds, along with their unconditionally loyal and equally violently maniacal Peggies first laid siege to Hope County, the Hope County Jail was one of its first major targets. Following a failed mission to arrest Joseph Seed on multiple counts of kidnapping, the members of the cult tried to take over the jail. Luckily, Whitehorse and his deputies were able to successfully fight them all off, resulting in several Peggie deaths and a few injuries for the citizens who had helped to fight back and re-claim the jail.

The Hope County Sheriff's Department spent two months bravely fighting the cult with lots of help from impervious Hope County citizens, who over time formed a militia of sorts that came to be known as "The Resistance". When Deputies Hudson and Pratt were kidnapped by John and Joseph Seed, Whitehorse, Harrison, and Shelby remained to unite, assist, and protect the Resistance. Those who were members of the Resistance made a home base in the towering and thick-walled main building of the Hope County Jail.

The jail's small five-bed Infirmary had become an impromptu hospital, as it had become quite unsafe to venture outside over time in search of another facility. Other inmates were soon transferred to the larger Montana State Penitentiary due to obvious safety and security concerns, so the jail's fifteen-cell Main Housing Unit had become an improvised sleeping quarters, cafeteria, and recreation area. Sheriff Whitehorse set up a CB radio in the center of the housing unit and attempted to contact other authorities and people on the outside, but the cult's extensive interferences with various radio antennas in and around Hope County made these attempts difficult and, at times, seemingly impossible. A helipad was located by the jail's main gate, and was everyone's exit strategy should all hell completely break loose.

Sheriff Whitehorse and Deputy Shelby decided to watch over things at the jail, so the immediate responsibilities of searching for the kidnapped deputies and investigating the cult fell onto the shoulders of Junior Deputy Harrison. As time went on, with the help of the Resistance, Harrison was able to successfully regain several regions of Hope County, as well as several essential businesses that the Peggies had initially used as their strongholds when they originally took over.

The heroic actions of Junior Deputy Harrison and the Resistance were not met without consequence, however. Harrison himself was kidnapped by Faith Seed at one point, who intoxicated him with her handmade drug "Bliss" and tried to psychologically manipulate him to her and the cult's way of thinking. He was later discovered in an open field by Sheriff Whitehorse and the Resistance members. He was heavily inebriated and delirious, but alive, so they promptly took him back to the jail and administered the narcotic reversal medication Narcan to try and quash the "Bliss" effects. By the next day, the drug was able to finish working its way out of the Junior Deputy's system, so he was able to recover and resume his battle against the cult.

Junior Deputy Harrison spent his days from then on helping people fight the cult as best he could. During what relative amount of down time he had when he wasn't either fighting Peggies left and right or methodically searching for his kidnapped colleagues, he helped the people of Hope County regain their homes, businesses, or essential resources. One of these deeds in particular had even helped to bring a new life into the world.

Following a particularly chaotic attempted siege of the local church in the small town of Fall's End, Harrison was in the middle of helping Pastor Jerome Jeffries and several other church members clean up the mess of broken glass and various debris when he happened to overhear an urgent message on his portable radio. Kim Rye, the expectant wife of local pilot Nick Rye, said that she feared she was going into labor. Harrison sprang into action, borrowing a silver Chevrolet El Camino from the Fall's End Garage next door and racing to Rye and Sons Aviation, the home and business owned by the Ryes. Kim Rye was indeed in labor, so Nick loaded himself and his wife into the back of his SUV, throwing his keys to Junior Deputy Harrison.

Harrison gunned the four-wheel-drive SUV at white-knuckle speed through a back-road shortcut Nick had suggested would take them toward the small Hope County Clinic, where Kim's midwife was waiting. As the three crossed the bridge close to the clinic, a white Cessna plane bearing the familiar contorted black cross logo flew overhead above them only to suddenly do a nose dive and crash in a fiery explosion right in front of where Harrison and the Ryes were headed. The determined Junior Deputy had no choice but to carefully but quickly weave the vehicle around the large pieces of flaming smoky plane debris and keep heading to the clinic.

The three arrived at Hope County Clinic without incident, and Harrison waited out by the car while the Ryes went inside. Two hours later, Nick and Kim Rye emerged with their healthy newborn daughter, whom they named Carmina. Harrison was very touched when Nick asked him to be their daughter's godfather, an offer that he very proudly accepted. As such, the Ryes decided that their daughter's full name would be Carmina Harrison Rye. Nick semi-humorously remarked that in light of his new daughter's arrival, he'll have to change the name of his business from "Rye and Sons Aviation" to "Rye and Daughter Aviation".

After this blessed and tender moment, Harrison brought the Ryes home and made sure they were as safe and secure as possible before getting back into his borrowed car and heading back to Fall's End. He promptly returned the vehicle and decided to get some rest, returning to the small house across the street that he had rented from a retired Hope County deputy when he had first taken the job.

Harrison found himself startled awake the next morning by the shrill sound of a ringing phone. He quickly answered to the sound of an unknown yet matter-of-fact male voice on the other end of the line, who said that Deputy Joey Hudson was still alive and being held captive in John Seed's underground bunker not far from Fall's End.

Before hanging up, the mysterious person said that the key to finding Hudson will come after taking down John Seed himself, saying the word "key" with some prominent emphasis before cluing Harrison in to the fact that in order to locate John Seed, he would first have to locate one of the many planes parked at the private airstrip at the close by Seed Ranch.

Harrison's shadowy unknown caller then hung up, at which point the Junior Deputy called Nick Rye and asking for his help in acquiring the plane, locating and taking down John Seed, and rescuing Deputy Hudson. Feeling that he substantially owed him one after his assistance in bringing his daughter Carmina into the world, Nick didn't even have to think before agreeing to help. Harrison then drove to Rye Aviation, where Nick explained he would cover him from the air in his prized Crop Duster airplane, which was outfitted with dual machine guns on either side of its large propeller, while Harrison himself took care of any Peggies on the ground and stole the plane. Nick then presented Harrison with a Bluetooth radio earpiece so the two of them would be able to communicate while carrying out their mission.

It wasn't long before Harrison reached Seed Ranch, with Nick stealthily hovering over the area in his plane. With Nick's help, Harrison made short work of the aggressive Peggies who weren't too happy about the two "sinners" intruding on their land. Nick continued to provide cover from above, spraying down down any Peggie who tried to stymie Harrison's goal of stealing the plane with a hail of machine gun rounds. This goal proved successful for Harrison as he commandeered the white Eden's Gate Cessna plane and, though he himself wasn't as experienced or skilled a pilot as Nick was, managed to get it airborne.

Now flying just behind him in his own plane, Nick soon radioed in to Harrison, warning him that he spotted John Seed in his plane up ahead of them. John Seed himself then cut in to their radio transmission, imploring the two men to turn around and leave them alone, throwing blatant taunts at Nick Rye. The accomplished pilot and new father, however, remained stoically undeterred.

The three of them began to hover over the location of John's underground bunker, at which point Nick and Harrison began to simultaneously fire at John and his plane, which Nick firing with his plane's machine guns, while Harrison fired one-handedly with an Uzi he had found in the cockpit, all the while doing his best to keep his own aircraft steady and in the air with his free hand. John's plane then nose-dived into some trees beside his bunker, at which point Harrison told Nick that he was headed down to intercept him and to please continue to provide cover from above.

Harrison then swallowed any apprehension and pulled the lever for the plane's ejector seat. He pinched his eyes shut as the plane's overhead visor suddenly detached, catapulting him and his seat rapidly upward into the cold open air. The ordinarily brave Junior Deputy couldn't help but loudly scream out an elongated expletive as he started to just as rapidly plummet toward the ground, the speed starting to slow somewhat upon deployment of the ejector seat's built-in parachute.

Once Harrison reached the ground, several Peggies emerged out from the open bunker hatch, only to be rapidly sprayed down by the built-in machine guns of Nick Rye's plane. This gave Harrison the opportunity to get his hands on to John Seed. The two enemies engaged in a ruthless hand-to-hand fistfight for several minutes before Harrison was finally able to get the upper hand on the selfishly fanatical cult elder. He grabbed the front of his leather jacket before throwing him with all his strength into a pack of Peggies who were rushing to assist. The five Peggies were quickly knocked down like bowling pins as their boss quickly collided with all of them at once. All of them started to get back up and attack Harrison when the five Peggies were suddenly dispatched by Nick from above, leaving only John alive for Harrison.

John feigned a surrender, raising his hands in false defeat toward the battered and exhausted Junior Deputy. Just as quickly, he went to reach for the handgun he kept in a shoulder holster, only to be met by a stellar headshot from Harrison's Sig-Sauer P-226 service weapon. After John's body hit the ground, Harrison noticed a key on a chain around his deceased enemy's neck and almost immediately understood what the mysterious caller from earlier that morning meant by the "key" to saving Hudson.

Harrison angrily tore the key off John's neck and put it in his pocket before grabbing an assault rifle off one of the nearby dead Peggies. He climbed down the hatch ladder into the underground bunker, gunning down any and every goddamned Peggie who managed to remain inside. He found Deputy Hudson's holding cell fairly quickly and unlocked it using John's key, at which point he was greeted with a relieved hug from his colleague and friend.

Hudson then told him of her plan to blow up the bunker using the plastic explosives that each Peggie had in their possession. With no time to waste, Harrison tossed her an assault rifle of her own and the two began looting the bodies of the various Peggies, collecting each remote explosive charge with their respective detonators and placing them strategically onto the natural gas lines that occupied every corridor in the bunker.

Once they reached the entry hatch ladder, the two deputies realized that John Seed must've called for more reinforcements when he realized that Nick and Harrison were on their way toward the bunker. Nick corroborated this theory, radioing in a warning that more Peggies are arriving outside. As soon as Hudson and Harrison emerged back outside, Hudson pressed the detonator remote, initiating what seemed like an earthquake as the ground vibrated with concussive force, the inside of the bunker collapsing with fiery explosions.

Nick continued to provide cover for Deputies Harrison and Hudson from above, mowing down every Peggie in sight, giving them time to commandeer an Eden's Gate pickup truck. As Harrison gunned the truck back towards Fall's End, Hudson repeatedly fired her own acquired assault rifle out the rear window of the truck, skillfully making short work of the small caravan of Peggies on their tail.

The heat died down as Harrison and Hudson began to get closer to the Fall's End town limits. Realizing this, Harrison radioed to Nick, who was still hovering above them in his plane. He humbly thanked his friend for all his help and told him to head home. Nick then suggested that Harrison keep the Bluetooth earpiece he had given him. If he needed help, he could just radio for him and he'd be there to help out in a hot minute. Nick Rye then parted ways with the two deputies for the time being, flying ahead of them in the direction of Rye and Sons (or, perhaps, Rye and Daughter) Aviation.

Harrison dropped Deputy Joey Hudson off at the Spread Eagle, a popular watering hole for the small town of Fall's End. During their trip back from the bunker, Hudson had managed to get a radio transmission through to Mary May Fairgrave, the Spread Eagle's longtime owner and manager. Mary agreed to let Deputy Hudson room with her in her apartment above the bar. Just before heading inside the bar, Hudson once again hugged the Junior Deputy through the open driver's side window of the pickup, saying that from that point on, she'd be willing to take orders from Harrison despite his being of a lower rank than she herself was.

Junior Deputy Harrison took immense comfort in the confidence that Hudson saw in him as he walked towards his house across the street from the bar. As he went to put his key into the front door, he suddenly felt a frighteningly familiar sensation as he happened to notice a pale green vapor erupt from the door's mail slot and into his face. Someone, most likely one of Faith Seed's diabolical disciples, had rigged a device to dose Harrison with "Bliss". The Junior Deputy quickly fell backwards, unconscious.

The next thing Harrison knew, he was waking up in the field across the road from the Hope County Jail. Shouts, screaming, gunshots, and grenade explosions could be heard from the jail, and repeated urgent transmissions crackled from the speaker of his portable radio. Sheriff Whitehorse had been kidnapped by Faith Seed and her disciples from the cult, who were now making a second attempt at overtaking the jail. In a snap judgement, Harrison decided to take a creative approach and hop into the helicopter the Resistance had planned to use in the event of an emergency evacuation. He ascended in the helicopter and flew inside the grounds of the jail, flying it low and using the landing skids to forcibly knock down the Peggie snipers arranged along the roof of the jail's main building. He then realized he had somehow missed one last shooter and swung the helicopter around, facing his final rooftop enemy. The livid Junior Deputy flew at the sniper with all his strength, colliding with him and pinning him against a brick side wall.

The helicopter was pretty much disabled at this point, so Harrison quickly hopped out onto the roof of the jail's main building. He soon realized that there were additional Peggies wreaking havoc inside, so he stealthily began making his way indoors by way of the air ducts. He spotted one of the Peggies standing guard on the catwalk in the Main Housing Unit, and kicked out the vent cover. The square-shaped steel cover flew out, striking the catwalk Peggie in the head and knocking him out, somehow not alerting the Peggies down by the jail cells below.

Harrison jumped down onto his feet and stole the unconscious Peggie's sniper rifle. Through the scope, he noticed that at least four Peggies were holding Deputy Chris Shelby, bound with what looked like a belt and gagged with duct tape, hostage. Harrison quickly gunned down all of the captors, at which point Deputy Shelby looked up and was incredibly reassured to find Junior Deputy Harrison manning the sniper rifle.

The two deputies soon reunited, at which point Harrison cut Shelby free of his restraints and handed him an assault rifle. Shelby then told his friend that Resistance members Virgil Minkler and Tracy Lader were also being held at gunpoint in the jail's Communications Room. As they crossed the Main Housing Unit, they suddenly encountered one last trio of Peggies, who promptly opened fire on the two deputies.

Harrison promptly dispatched all three Peggies, but was heartbroken upon discovering that Chris Shelby had been fatally struck in the head by one of the enemy bullets just before Harrison was able to neutralize the hostile Peggies. He wanted to break down sobbing right then and there, but he knew Virgil and Tracy needed him. Therefore, he braved onward across the Main Housing Unit and into the Communications Room.

The already dismayed Junior Deputy was met with an even more tragic sight upon entering the Communications Room. Virgil Minkler, Hope County Mayor and champion of the Resistance against Project Eden's Gate, had apparently been the victim of a gunshot wound to the chest, having been shot by Bliss-intoxicated Marshal Cameron Burke. Burke subsequently turned his firearm on himself just after the shooting. Virgil was able to survive for a brief period of time, thanks to the abrupt first aid efforts of Tracey Lader, but he faded fast and died a few minutes after Harrison entered the room.

The Junior Deputy, although very concerned about how his most recent dosing of Bliss would physically and psychologically affect him, decided that Faith Seed had to go. He immediately went into the jail's Infirmary and gave himself a second injection of Narcan, the side effects from which came on surprisingly fast, sending him to the closest jail cell toilet to throw up. As he rinsed his face off in the small jail cell sink, he realized he still had one last plastic explosive charge and detonator in the stolen Peggie truck he had abandoned in Fall's End. He knew immediately what he had to do in order to rescue Sheriff Whitehorse and rid Hope County of Faith Seed once and for all.

The next morning, Harrison drove the truck to an area known as "Faith's Gate" in the Henbane River region of Hope County which included a large open clearing by the river. It was there he encountered Faith Seed herself, who was apparently under the mistaken impression that the Junior Deputy was still somehow intoxicated with the Bliss he had been dosed with earlier. Harrison was happy to go along with the rouse as Faith seemingly floated closer toward him, trying to convince him to surrender to her way of thinking.

Suddenly, several psychotic Bliss-intoxicated Peggies, known as "Angels", came at Harrison. He fought them all in fierce hand-to-hand combat as Faith watched from afar. Despite being outnumbered, the martial arts-trained Harrison was able to kill each of them with severe trachea blows and swift neck breakings. Next came Faith herself, who floated expeditiously toward him, most likely believing she'd receive the same Ju-Jitsu beat down that her disciples had. Harrison said nothing to the manipulative cult leader as he threw the plastic explosive charge at her feet before turning away and sprinting toward the parked truck, pressing the detonator remote while doing so.

His ears rang like overactive church bells with the sound of the explosion coupled with the deafening death screech of Faith Seed. Harrison dove face down into the flatbed of the truck as the shockwave of smoke, blood, and flames expanded above him.

When the shockwave cleared, all that was left of Faith Seed was a bloodied and charred torso, the explosion having taken her limbs and head and propelled them to God-Knows-Where. Harrison then found his way to Faith's bunker, wherein he killed more Peggies and rescued Sheriff Whitehorse from a potentially forced suicide by hanging.

The courageous Junior Deputy later dropped the sheriff off at the jail to rest and be reunited with the Resistance members. He was then treated to a celebratory round of drinks at the Spread Eagle with Deputy Hudson, Pastor Jerome, Nick Rye, and Mary May Fairgrave. As soon as he went back to his house afterward, he took a shower and finally took some time to just break down and cry in order to release his emotions.

Jacob Seed, whose reign of terror occupied the Whitetail Mountains region of Hope County, was next on Harrison's list. The next night, he engaged Jacob in a fierce sniper rifle shooting battle atop one of the mountains, during which Harrison proved victorious as he secured a flawless shot to the center of Jacob's chest. As Jacob laid on the ground dying, he remarked that no matter what has happened or will happen in the future, his brother Joseph's prophecies will always be correct.

With his siblings, or "heralds" as he called them, finally dead at the hands of Junior Deputy Harrison, Joseph Seed then requested a meeting with him, Sheriff Whitehorse, and Deputy Hudson at his compound, where he supposedly had Deputy Staci Pratt held hostage. Hudson, Whitehorse, and Harrison headed there the next morning. Upon their arrival at the compound, Sheriff Whitehorse and his deputies were greeted with the unsettling realization that Pastor Jerome, Nick Rye, and Resistance member Grace Armstrong had all apparently been intoxicated with Bliss and taken hostage by the cult.

The three of them almost immediately grabbed Whitehorse and Hudson, holding them at gunpoint along with Deputy Pratt. Junior Deputy Harrison decided to take a more diplomatic and negotiating approach and chose to simply talk with Joseph Seed. After some pseudo-Biblical attempts at reasoning with Harrison, the manically fanatical cult leader gave the Junior Deputy two options—One: To resist the cult and engage Joseph in a fight, the winner of which decides who will have power over Hope County, or Two: to walk away, and according to Joseph, they will not be bothered by the cult again if they choose to do so.

Perhaps against his better judgement, Harrison chose to walk away, much to the forthright protestations of Deputies Hudson and Pratt, who were promptly released from captivity upon Harrison's decision. Sheriff Whitehorse, meanwhile, kept his calm and agreed with Harrison's choice, ordering him, Pratt, and Hudson into one of the white Eden's Gate pickup trucks. As they drove away with the sheriff behind the wheel, Whitehorse reassured everyone that they would head to the nearby city of Missoula, Montana, and try to get help from the National Guard in order to save everyone and deal with the cult. Whitehorse then turned on the radio, hoping that music would distract everyone from the grave-seeming situation they had found themselves in.

The high-pitched crooning of the Platters' "Only You (and You Alone)" soon filled the speakers. This triggered violent flashbacks for Harrison of the brief time he was subjected to Jacob Seed's attempts at mind control, due to the fact that Jacob would repeatedly play that particular song to try and break his subjects down.

"What's wrong?" Whitehorse asked.

With that, Harrison felt as if he was having the worse migraine any human being could ever have. His vision blurred, and he soon passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

_[Author's Note: I feel like I have to apologize for the first chapter's lack of dialogue and present-day action. I promise that there's not only actual dialogue, but also more present-day and "post cult" action happening in this chapter. This is the chapter I mentioned in the author's note for Chapter 1 that contains very obvious references to the first "Shenmue" game. Just a reminder, "Shenmue", its setting, its characters, etc. are the property of Sega as well as any related companies or entities. No infringement is intended by the use of these properties in my story. On another side note, I'm taking some creative liberties with Deputy Pratt's middle initial, Deputy Hudson's full name, and a small part of the "Shenmue" storyline.]_

**Chapter 2: Contentment in the Land of the Rising Sun**

After Hope County Sheriff Earl Whitehorse, along with his deputies Staci Pratt, Joey Hudson, and Junior Deputy Troy Harrison were given permission to freely walk away from Joseph Seed and the Project Eden's Gate cult, so many significant events had taken place. After realizing that Junior Deputy Harrison was still somewhat under the influence of the now deceased Jacob Seed's mind control techniques, they immediately rushed him to a hospital in Missoula, Montana, where he was held for a psychiatric evaluation. Sheriff Whitehorse and the remaining deputies then headed to Montana's capital city of Helena, where they were able to arrange an emergency meeting with Montana Governor John Albertson and his staff. They were greeted warmly with almost a full-fledged hero's welcome by Governor Albertson himself at the Montana State House. Albertson was a short, smartly-dressed Democrat politician in his late fifties, his thinning white hair and bifocal glasses nearly making him a Bernie Sanders doppelganger.

"Sheriff Whitehorse", the governor greeted with an extended hand.

Sheriff Whitehorse removed his cowboy hat and placed in on the chair beside him before warmly reciprocating the gesture. "Governor", he said, "despite the unfortunate circumstances, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, sir."

"Likewise," Governor Albertson replied as he broke the handshake and took a seat behind his desk. He then gestured to a tall brunette woman in her mid-forties who sat in a seat to the left of the Governor's desk. "This is Sharon Stanley", the Governor said, "She's the State Representative acting on behalf of Hope County."

Whitehorse, Pratt and Hudson sat in the three seats facing Albertson and Stanley. "No handshakes necessary folks", Representative Stanley told them as she stood up from her seat, "I know you've all been through a lot over the past few months, and I'd like you to make you all aware that I'm personally starting an inquiry on behalf of the State of Montana into Project Eden's Gate and the havoc they've caused you all in Hope County. Could we get your names, occupations, and ranks for the record please?"

Whitehorse nodded. "Earl Whitehorse", he said, "Sheriff of Hope County, Montana."

Deputy Staci Pratt then spoke up, standing from his seat at full attention, as if he was back in the police academy. "Staci D. Pratt", he said, "Deputy Sheriff, Hope County Sheriff's Department, Hope County, Montana."

Once Pratt returned to his seat, it was Deputy Joey Hudson's turn to stand up at attention, which she promptly did. "Joanne L. Hudson", she said, "Deputy Sheriff, Hope County Sheriff's Department, Hope County Montana. Off the record, ma'am, I'd prefer to be called 'Joey', please."

Representative Stanley noted all the information she'd been given onto a large legal pad. "'Joey'", she replied with a comfortable nod, "so noted, Deputy, thank you. Please be seated."

Hudson took a seat as Representative Stanley continued addressing them. "I understand you have one deputy that couldn't join us here today?" Stanley asked the sheriff.

"Yes ma'am", Whitehorse replied, "Troy Harrison. He's our Junior Deputy and the newest member of the department. He was the last deputy I hired before the cult overtook Hope County. The Seeds put him through the ringer, so we took him to Missoula for a psychiatric evaluation, and he's still undergoing his evaluation at a hospital there as we speak."

Representative Stanley briefly flipped through a file of documents, reports, and photographs pertaining to Hope County and Project Eden's Gate. Upon reaching one particular set of reports, she let out a very compassionate sigh. "Oh", she said after a beat, "I see here that you also lost one of your deputies in the line of duty during the cult's siege as well. I'm so very sorry."

Deputy Hudson swallowed the lump of sadness in her throat before chiming in. "Yes", she said, "his name was Christopher Shelby. He was an Army veteran and former Missoula police officer. He'd been with us for a little over three years. He was shot and killed while assisting Deputy Harrison in preventing the Peggies from overtaking our county jail a second time."

Sheriff Whitehorse put a soothing hand on Hudson's shoulder before adding to her statement. "I myself was personally abducted by Faith Seed during that second siege Miss Stanley", he said, "And our Mayor, Virgil Minkler, was also killed. Junior Deputy Harrison was personally responsible for saving our lives and ending the lives of the three Seed siblings."

Stanley nodded. "And what is Deputy Harrison's current condition?" she asked.

"The psychiatrist at the hospital admitted him for a seventy-two-hour hold", Whitehorse replied, "as I said before, the cult, in particular Jacob and Faith Seed, really did a number on his mental state. His preliminary diagnosis is 'severe anxiety, situational mania, and exhaustion'."

"Did your late Deputy Shelby have any next of kin to speak of?" Governor Albertson asked.

"Yes Governor", Hudson replied, "Deputy Harrison and I were able to locate his mother following the sheriff's successful rescue from the cult. She requested that his funeral be given full military and sheriff's department honors. He'll be buried in the Lamb of God cemetery in the Holland Valley region of our county."

Governor Albertson took a moment to think. "But in order for you to successfully do that", he said, "we have to deal with the Eden's Gate members who are still very present in your county, including Joseph Seed, who's also known as 'The Father', correct?"

"Yes", Pratt replied, "as much hard work as we've put in to dealing with the Seeds and all of their disciples, Eden's Gate still does very much linger in Hope County."

Representative Stanley examined the Eden's Gate folder again for a moment. "I see that the federal arrest warrant for Joseph Seed on multiple kidnapping charges is still valid", she said.

"It is", Sheriff Whitehorse replied, "Despite our initial attempts to arrest him proving unsuccessful and the death of Deputy U.S. Marshal Cameron Burke."

Governor Albertson took another moment of contemplation before deciding on a plan. "Here's what I'll do", he began, "Effective immediately, I'm signing an emergency order declaring Martial Law on Hope County, Montana. I'm therefore ordering both the Montana National Guard and the FBI to execute operations against Joseph Seed and the Project Eden's Gate cult. The specific orders will be for Joseph and any remaining cult members to be forcefully brought in dead or alive. Medical and humanitarian aid will also be given to the citizens of Hope County as needed, and the jurisdictional authority of the Hope County Sheriff's Department will remain intact."

Deputy Hudson briefly raised a hand before posing a question. "If I may ask Governor", she began, "Isn't it the President's responsibility to declare Martial Law on a specific area?"

The Governor shook his head in response. "No ma'am", he replied, "If the War Powers Act was being invoked, then that would indeed be the obligation of the President and the White House. But this is one county in our State of Montana. The responsibility to save you fine, brave folks from Joseph Seed and his unbalanced band of whackos is ours and only ours."

He was right. The current President of the United States, despite having a substantial number of supporters, was considered a very unpopular leader by the majority of Americans. He certainly had his hands full as it was, largely due to allegations of corruption, sexual misconduct, and collusion with a certain foreign government, among other allegations. As Governor Albertson saw it, there was no way the Commander-in-Chief would resort to the radical measure of invoking the War Powers Act solely for one Montana County. The primary responsibility of saving Hope County from Joseph Seed and the Project Eden's Gate cult was theirs and only theirs, and it would all start with the Governor putting his signature on that emergency Martial Law declaration order.

_Hazuki Dojo and Residence  
Yokosuka, Japan  
3 Weeks Later_

Junior Deputy Troy Harrison was in a totally different space now, in every sense of that phrasing. After being released from the Missoula, Montana hospital where he had spent three straight days being evaluated by a team of psychiatric professionals, his body and mind felt all but completely worn out. He decided to make an urgent phone call to his old friend and martial arts teacher, Ryo Hazuki, at his home in Japan, where he ran a dojo out of his home. He very graciously asked his revered sensei if he could come to Japan and stay with him for a while so that he can re-train his mind and body to hopefully bring himself out of the mental and physical slumps he had found himself in after his ordeal with Project Eden's Gate and his subsequent psychiatric hospitalization.

During his hospitalization, he had been aggressively treated with various medications and electroconvulsive therapy, known to most people by its simpler name, "shock therapy". Ryo wholeheartedly accepted his old pupil's request, finding comfort in the idea of reuniting with the young man that he at one time was very fond of.

Harrison, along with his cousin Bill Harvey, had spent two consecutive summers living and training at the Hazuki Dojo during their college years. It was there that they studied the Hazuki family's unique style of Ju-Jitsu under the tutelage of Sensei Ryo and his fellow teacher, Masayuki Fukuhara, known simply by the nicknames "Fuku-san" or "Fuku Sensei". Fuku-san and Ryo lived and worked together for many years in Ryo's home and dojo in the residential Yamanose District of Yokosuka, Japan.

The Hazuki home was one of the last houses in the neighborhood to have been built in the traditional Japanese style. Adjoining the property's main house was the Hazuki Dojo. The dojo had originally been founded by Ryo's father, Iwao Hazuki, the Grand Master and originator of the Hazuki style of Ju-Jitsu. Iwao ran the family dojo until his death in 1986, after which time the Hazuki property was passed on to Ryo. The dojo thrived under Ryo and Fuku-san's supervision to this day, Ryo and Fuku-san having both achieved the status of Grand Master of the Hazuki Style some time ago.

On this particular morning, Harrison was busy practicing the Iron Palm maneuver in the Hazuki Dojo. Dressed in his martial arts Gi and wearing the Blue Belt he had proudly achieved all those years ago in college, he quickly and repeatedly thrust the palm of his right hand out in front of him while keeping his right hand clenched in a tight fist. After roughly half a dozen attempts at performing the Iron Palm maneuver, he thrust his fisted right hand out in front of him, letting out a sharply guttural yell.

Ryo Hazuki nodded affirmatively at his reinstated pupil as he stood at the front of the dojo. "Very good, Troy-san", he said, "I see that despite all you've apparently been through, you still remember your training. Well done."

With that, Harrison put his arms at his sides and gave his sensei a courteous and traditional martial arts bow, known as a "rei". "Thank you, Sensei," he replied, "Your teachings were extremely beneficial during those trying times in Montana."

Ryo sat down in an Indian-style position on the dojo's hardwood floor and motioned for Harrison to do the same. The Junior Deputy complied and sat down across from his Sensei. "Are you still struggling with the traumas you suffered there?" Ryo asked.

"Unfortunately, yes", Harrison replied after a deep sigh, "Since I've been here, I've had a lot of trouble sleeping and I'm fighting nightmares about those times in captivity with Faith and Jacob Seed. I still hear their voices in my head sometimes."

"I'm sure that's very scary and very strange to you", Ryo said, "but that's to be expected after all that they put you and all those other people through."

Harrison nodded. "I know Sensei", he replied, "I guess I just thought that the electroconvulsive therapy I endured was supposed to wipe all the scary things from my memory entirely, like a computer file that gets erased."

"The human mind is not an electronic machine Troy-san", Ryo said with a very reassuring but still somewhat stern tone, "and you yourself are not a machine either. You are a normal, decent, flesh-and-blood human being like everybody else in this world. I'm sure that drastic therapy of yours helped, but you will always have pieces of these memories in your head."

"I guess I don't know how to deal with them", Harrison said with a sort of defeated tone in his voice.

Ryo rose to his feet and stepped slightly closer to his still-seated pupil. "Fight them like you would any real enemy", he told him, "Realize that no matter how strong you believe that enemy to be, your own strength is just as solid, in some cases even more so."

Harrison rose to his feet, stepped back a beat, and gave Ryo another polite "Rei". "Thank you again, Sensei", he said.

Ryo gave his own brief "Rei". "You're very welcome Troy-san", he said, "You're dismissed for the rest of today. After dinner, I'd like you to go to bed a little early and try and get some rest."

Later that evening, Harrison and Ryo were joined at dinner by Masayuki Fukuhara and his wife, Akemi Fukuhara, who also lived with Ryo and Fuku-san at the Hazuki Home. The four of them dined on a hearty meal of customary Japanese cuisine, including grilled Yakitori chicken, Miso soup, and buckwheat flour-based Soba noodles.

"How is the food Troy-san?" Akemi asked.

Harrison paused from sipping spoonfuls of his Miso soup to nod positively to Akemi. "It's quite delicious Akemi-san", he replied, "The food here is very unlike the food we have back in Montana."

Masayuki and Akemi Fukuhara had been married for 27 years. Akemi was a petite, stunning brunette who was only a year younger than her husband. The two had originally met in 1985 when Akemi was working as a hostess at the Bar Yokosuka, a local watering hole which eventually became a respected staple of the nightlife in Yokosuka's Dobuita shopping and business district. By now, Akemi was Bar Yokosuka's managing owner, having had the humbling responsibility bestowed upon her in 1992 after the retirement of the bar's original owner.

"Just out of curiosity", Fuku-san then asked, "what do you guys eat most of the time in Montana?"

Harrison chuckled a bit and gave a lighthearted smile. "Anything from plain old cheeseburgers to grilled bear meat sandwiches!" he said.

The dining table in the Hazuki kitchen then erupted in uproarious laughter from the four of them. For Harrison, it had been the first time in however long since he'd really taken the time to just laugh and enjoy the jovial moments that life had to offer. He didn't have to deal with cults, violence, death, or pain, be it his own pain or that of others. At this moment here in Japan, he was the closest to truly happy he'd been since the tumultuous ordeal with the Seeds and Project Eden's Gate had begun.

This upbeat moment was interrupted with the shrill ringing of the black rotary telephone in the Hazuki's small foyer area near the kitchen. Fuku-san politely excused himself from the table and left the room to answer it. With the kitchen's sliding door open, Harrison could see him over his shoulder from where he sat at the head of the table.

"Hello", Fuku-san greeted when he picked up the receiver, "Hazuki Dojo. May I help you?"

Harrison noticed a slightly confused, if not simultaneously intrigued look on Fuku-san's face as he listened to whomever was on the other end of the line. "Yes, he's right here", Fuku-san said, "Just a moment please."

With that, Fuku-san placed one hand over the bottom of the receiver and looked over to Harrison, who by now was just as interested as he was. "Troy-san", he said to him in a quiet tone, "There's a man calling for you from the United States. His name is Earl Whitehorse."

Harrison nodded and got up from the table and went to pick up the call. He gave Fuku-san a brief appreciative bow before taking the receiver and putting it to his ear.

"Hello Earl", Harrison greeted the sheriff, "If you're taking the time to get ahold of me while I'm on the opposite end of the globe, this can't just be a social call."

The Junior Deputy could hear his estranged boss laugh on the other end of the line. "How've you been Rook?" Whitehorse asked, "We've been worried about you back here in Hope County."

Harrison sighed again, reassured by Whitehorse's calm tone and concern. "Better and better, Sheriff", he said, "One day at a time. If you don't mind my asking, sir, how did you figure out I was here in Japan? My apologies and I mean no disrespect, but I didn't exactly think to send you guys a postcard."

"Joey Hudson checked with the State Department", Whitehorse said, "Your passport was stamped by a Japanese Customs official at the Narita International Airport in Tokyo seventeen days ago. Then, she called your mother in Vermont to figure out where in all of Japan you might go."

Harrison chuckled at that. "She called my mother huh?" he asked with a surreptitious tone.

"Listen Rook", the sheriff replied, his tone switching to a more serious one, "I'm giving some thought to finally retiring from the department. Governor Albertson invoked a Martial Law order on all of Hope County right after we checked you into that hospital. The FBI and the Montana National Guard did a huge sweep of the entire county, nailing every associate of the cult that they could find."

"And?" a now very interested Harrison asked.

"As of yesterday", Whitehorse said, "The final tally stands at thirty-three Peggies dead and an additional seven in federal custody awaiting court dates on numerous charges. In case you were wondering, they picked up Joseph Seed on those open kidnapping charges that we tried to nail him on."

Harrison slid down the wall, sitting down on his knees as he let out a huge sigh of relief. "Where is the bastard?" he asked.

"The Attorney General ordered him transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado", Whitehorse said, "It's the only facility closest enough to us that didn't have any Peggie bastards already in it. He's been awaiting trial in a solitary confinement cell for the last twelve days."

"When's the trial?" Harrison asked.

"Seed's attorney was granted a Sixth Amendment motion on the original kidnapping charges", Whitehorse explained, "He was given a speedy trial. The thing is, it was a bench trial with no jury. The federal judge who presided over the trial tacked on Capital Murder charges for killing Chris Shelby once the defense attorney submitted all the case documents."

"He got a bench trial on that too I hope", Harrison said.

"Charges on that are pending", Whitehorse said, "So that's up in the air for now. The judge on the kidnapping trial found him guilty on all counts. Life in prison without parole."

"Yes!" Harrison replied in almost a shout. "What a good time to retire huh?"

"That's the point I'm trying to make Rook", Whitehorse said, "I'm preparing a list of qualified candidates to replace me. Staci Pratt expressed interest."

Harrison instinctively nodded at that, though he knew the sheriff obviously couldn't see that. "He's a good cop", he replied, "and he's been in Hope County much longer than I have."

"Those are two good points on his part Rook", Whitehorse said, "But I'm worried his Post Traumatic Stress from the Peggies is getting to him. He almost drove his own patrol car off the road in the Whitetail Mountains last week."

Harrison lunged forward in a very worried way. "Is he okay?" he asked.

"That's what concerns me", Whitehorse said, "When I noticed the dent on his fender and asked him about it, he said he had no memory of what happened. Only thing he did remember was patrolling up in the Whitetails alone earlier that afternoon."

"Was he on anything to the best of your knowledge Sheriff?" Harrison asked.

"I sent him to the clinic to have his blood and urine checked for alcohol or drugs", Whitehorse said, "Negative across the board on both. I have no hard evidence to justify suspending him, and he's too damn good a deputy for me to fire him. So, I have Joey Hudson partnered up with him until further notice."

"Okay", Harrison said, "What about Joey? She's wicked smart, resourceful, and in my opinion more than capable…"

"She declined the offer Rook", Whitehorse abruptly replied, cutting him off, "She gave me a very well-thought letter of recommendation suggesting you for the position instead."

With that, Harrison's jaw dropped, stunned at the idea. "Me?" he anxiously said after snapping out of his briefly speechless state, "Replace you as the Sheriff of Hope County?"

Whitehorse chuckled at the Junior Deputy's reaction. "Why not Rook?" Whitehorse said, "You're not exactly the average, everyday rookie deputy, are you? You were an FBI agent, then a police officer in two cities before coming to us. Not only that, but you saved our lives and helped make this county livable despite those fucking Peggies being there."

"I couldn't save Chris", Harrison flatly stated.

"That's a chance every one of us takes when we put the uniform on every day Rook", Whitehorse said, "Chris died fighting the Seeds and protecting Hope County, not because of anything you personally did."

Harrison let out another deep sigh and excused himself before placing the phone's receiver on his lap for a brief moment and composing his emotions. "The answer is 'yes' Earl", he finally said, "I accept. I expect that with all those prior resignations and Chris dying, we have some spots open in the department, correct?"

Whitehouse let out a sigh of his own on his end of the line, perhaps one of relief and/or comfort in his choice of a successor, before replying. "We do, yes. State funding given to the county allows for a maximum of eight full-time law enforcement officer positions and four dispatcher positions within the Sheriff's Office."

"So have Pratt and Hudson decided to stay onboard even after all the shit hit the fan?" Harrison asked.

"Yes", Whitehorse replied, "Hudson's keeping an eye on Pratt for the time being at my request. As for other staff members, we've hired two brand new deputies since you've been away. My son, Michael, just happens to be one of them."

"You've mentioned him before", Harrison said, "You said he served two tours in Afghanistan with the Army as a Military Police Officer. Is he still in the service?"

"He received his Honorable Discharge papers three years ago", Whitehorse explained, "He spent the next two years as a Tribal Police Officer on the Blackfeet Reservation near Browning. Our entire Whitehorse clan, myself included, is from there."

"Cool", an interested Harrison replied, "What about the other new deputy?"

"Kevin Dodd Junior", Whitehorse replied, "He was a college senior playing halfback for Oklahoma State football when the Peggies overtook the county. He graduated with a law degree and spent six months with Oklahoma City PD before I offered him the job here. His mom owns the diner in Henbane River, and his dad is our local garbage man."

"You mean Aubrey's Diner?" Harrison asked, "That place is open again?"

"Yep", Whitehorse said, "Thanks in no small part to you and the Resistance."

Harrison sighed deeply once more in yet another moment of deep contemplation. "That's three spots for me to fill", he said very matter-of-factly, "and I don't want to leave them open very long, Earl. Luckily, I have three good friends who I think could use some changes in their scenery. I'll keep you posted."

"Thanks Rook", Whitehorse said, "I really appreciate this, and I think you'll be just as good a help to Hope County with Sheriff's stars on your shoulders."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Good Luck**

Several expensive international phone calls and several long conversations later, Junior Deputy and soon to be newly appointed Hope County Sheriff Troy Harrison had secured three new subordinates for his new administration once he returned to Hope County, Montana. The three officers he had chosen were all people he had worked with in the past, and he had the utmost confidence in their abilities.

Sergeant Abigail "Abby" Asher had known Troy Harrison for roughly twenty years. They had been childhood friends and schoolmates in their Vermont hometown despite the four-year age difference between them. They had lost touch for a while when Harrison graduated high school and headed for college, but they later reunited some years later when the two discovered that they just so happened to be assigned to the same Chicago Police district station. Asher had joined the Chicago PD just after receiving her Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice at a Colorado university. At the time of the two friends' reunion, Asher had been a patrol officer for nearly two years before being recruited by the CPD's Narcotics Section to work a series of undercover assignments. Harrison, at the time, was a Detective working a joint assignment with both the CPD Homicide Unit and the new cutting-edge Cyber Crimes Task Force.

Asher's career hit a considerable number of obstacles, however, when the aftermath of one undercover assignment left her grappling with addictions to alcohol and opioid pills. She had initially turned to Harrison for help when she was charged with a DUI, but Harrison decided to use "tough love" on his troubled friend, refusing to help unless she first sought help for herself. Asher spent the next three months in court-ordered rehab, and upon her successful completion and release from the program, Harrison submitted a very sincere letter to the Chicago Police Superintendent that urged him to let Asher keep her job. His recommendation worked and Asher soon achieved a promotion to the rank of Sergeant. Any elation that Abigail Asher felt was apparently short-lived when the department higher-ups seemingly decided to discreetly chastise her for her indiscretions. She was promptly exiled to CPD's Headquarters, more commonly known by its nickname, "The Ivory Tower" as their Desk Sergeant.

Adam Xander, meanwhile, had previously worked alongside Harrison for four and a half years in a police department on the West Coast, following Harrison's departure from the Chicago PD. The two had initially began as partners in the Homicide Unit, and both eventually achieved simultaneous promotions to Sergeant, and worked Patrol for a year afterward. After he, Xander, and their fellow officers foiled a domestic terrorism plot, Harrison was meritoriously promoted to the position of Chief Detective, with Xander being moved up to Lieutenant, respectively. Growing tired of the city pace after a while, Harrison tendered his resignation, appointing Adam Xander to succeed him as the new Chief Detective.

Dakota Michaels was another colleague of Harrison's from his time on the West Coast who had worked closely alongside him and Xander. A seasoned officer and well-trained SWAT team member, Xander and Harrison could always depend on him to back them up and assist them in any situation or crisis, so much so that it had been Michaels' insights and support that had proved so instrumental in foiling the aforementioned domestic terror plot. With Harrison and Xander receiving their respective promotions soon after, Michaels made his own way up the ranks by becoming a Captain and assuming command of the department's elite SWAT unit. He was also a husband and devoted father to a young daughter.

Over time, however, both Xander and Michaels grew just as weary of the fast pace and celebrity-obsessed culture that seemed to envelop the particular city in which they lived and worked. Within weeks of each other, the two of them both resigned from the police force and together, they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to work as firefighter/paramedics, an occupation the two of them had in common prior to becoming police officers.

Now in present-day Yokosuka, Japan, Troy Harrison packed his belongings into his gym bag and suitcase and was in the process of making the bed in the Hazuki guest room when both Sensei Ryo and Fuku-san came in to check on him.

"I take it you've been called back to America", Ryo said.

Harrison turned and gave a brief, appreciative bow to the two of them. "Yes, I have", he replied, "A really great job opportunity has come up back in Montana that I've decided to accept. I'd like to very graciously thank the two of you for taking me in and helping me get back on my feet."

"You're so welcome, Troy-san", Fuku-san said, "We've loved having you around here again after all these years. We'd like you to know that you always have a place here at Hazuki Dojo."

Harrison shook Fuku-san's hand. "Thank you, Fuku Sensei," he replied.

Sensei Ryo assisted Harrison in pulling the bed together. "Are your travel plans in order, Troy-san?" he asked.

"Yes", Harrison replied as he pulled the pillowcase back up onto one of the pillows, "I'm flying out of Narita Airport in Tokyo at ten p.m. tonight. I reserved a seat on the five o' clock bus from Dobuita."

"Is your family aware of this new great opportunity?" Ryo asked.

"Not yet", Harrison replied as he put the pillow back in its proper place, "I'm going to try and have a Skype session with my mother tonight and explain everything."

Ryo and Fuku-san walked Harrison to the front gate of the Hazuki property. Ryo then presented him with a bundle of items wrapped in a green silk cloth.

"What's this?" Harrison asked curiously.

Ryo gave him a slyly kind smile. "Don't open it until you get back home", he said dubiously, "there are a few things in there that could be helpful and bring you good luck."

Harrison gave a nod in gratitude, then briefly turned his attention to Fuku-san. "Please give Akemi-san my regards", he said, "She's a keeper, Fuku Sensei, don't ever forget that."

Fuku-san bowed to Harrison. "I won't", he replied as he rose back upright, "Thank you again, Troy-san. Safe travels, my friend."

_Nito's Wi-Fi and Coffee  
Dobuita District, Yokosuka  
4:00 P.M._

The sole local taxi in Yokosuka was fairly expensive and only came through every so often, so Harrison made the long walk from the quiet residential streets of Yamanose and through the equally serene streets of the neighboring Sakuragaoka district to bustling Dobuita, Yokosuka's popular shopping and business district. This busy district was home to plenty of bars, a gambling parlor, several restaurants, and almost all of Yokosuka's major businesses as well as a few apartment buildings.

Harrison found his way to Nito's Wi-Fi and Coffee, a well-liked and trendy shop on the edge of Dobuita within walking distance from the bus stop where he would soon board his bus to Tokyo. The long-time business owner, Yuji Nito, first opened the shop in 1983 as the You Arcade, which quickly became one of Dobuita's most frequented hangouts. However, as time went on and the popularity of big video arcades started to gradually dwindle, Nito and his wife decided to revamp the image of their business to attract the more technologically adept young crowd. As such, the arcade was completely renovated into a cozy coffee shop with Wi-Fi compatibility, a fully functioning coffee bar, and several computer stations. These accommodations were ideal for both the smartphone users and those who found convenience in using a regular desktop computer. Nito's Wi-Fi and Coffee had its grand opening in the summer of 2009.

With roughly an hour to kill before having to catch his bus, Harrison sat down at one of the computer stations with a cup of coffee at his side. He brought up Skype, signed into his account, and was excited to see that his mother, Karen Harrison, was logged onto the program.

Harrison clicked on his mother's profile and she immediately answered. He could tell that she certainly was not happy as she started the conversation.

"I have been worried sick about you!" Karen said, I need to know what is going on with you! What are your plans?"

"I have been offered a job replacing my friend Sheriff Whitehorse", Harrison replied, "and I've decided to accept it. I'm on my way now as we speak."

Karen smiled, but that was quickly replaced by a worried expression. "What about those Eden's Gate shitheads?" she asked, "are they still in existence?"

"It's complicated Ma", Harrison started to explain, "I don't know if you've been watching the news lately, but all I'm about to tell you has been released to the media, so it's okay for me to say. The Governor of Montana signed a Martial Law order for Hope County. The FBI and the Montana National Guard swooped in and took down most of the cult's remaining cells. Thirty-three cult members are dead, seven were arrested and are awaiting court dates. Joseph Seed was arrested and convicted in a bench trial on multiple counts of kidnapping."

"Where's the asshole now?" Karen asked.

"Rotting in a solitary confinement cell in a federal prison for the rest of his pathetically selfish life", Harrison said.

"Good" Karen replied, "Seems like you'll have some big shoes to fill as the new sheriff."

Harrison sighed. "Yeah", he said, "But my first official act will be to re-staff the department. I just hired three of my old colleagues to fill some of the open spots."

"Anybody I'd know?" Karen asked.

"Possibly", Harrison replied, "Remember Abby Asher?"

Karen let out a knowing, uncomfortable sigh of her own, as she had never been Abigail Asher's biggest fan. "How the hell could I forget dear?" she said, "You worked with her in Chicago right?"

"Yep", Harrison said, "She's a Sergeant now. I plan to have her fill a Sergeant position we have back in Hope County to be the new Corrections Supervisor at the jail."

"That's good", Karen said dryly.

"Sounds like there was definitely meant to be a 'but' in that dry-ass reply", Harrison commented.

"Just remember Troy", Karen said, "It was you who complained to me years ago how Abby was throwing her badge away by drinking every Wino in Chicago under the table and snorting half the opioids she got off the street…"

"And if you'll remember", Harrison cut her off, "She admitted to what she did in open court and was sent away for three months. I did her a huge solid by helping to make sure she had some semblance of a career to come back to. I think coming to work with us in Montana is her way of returning that favor."

"I hope your right honey", Karen said, "but as always, just be careful with her."

"I can handle Abby", Harrison said, "It's the ghosts of Eden's Gate I'm not so sure about."

Harrison took a moment to sip his coffee and ignore the awkward pause in the conversation. "Look Ma", he continued, "I've got to start getting ready to head out. I'll give you a call as soon as I get settled back in Montana, okay?"

"That's fine", Karen replied, "but please don't go so long without getting ahold of me again. I was scared shitless that those damn Peggies got you."

"Not a chance in Hell Ma", Harrison said with a slight scoff, "But yes, I promise never to leave you in the dark like that again. I love you." He blew his mother a kiss through the webcam.

Karen blew her son a kiss back. "I love you too baby", she said, "be safe."

The two logged off of Skype and Harrison got up from his computer. He took his coffee and sat on a big leather couch near the shop's big front window, setting his gym bag and suitcase by his feet. About half an hour later, his bus arrived at the nearby bus stop, which Harrison promptly boarded. He arrived in Tokyo five hours later safe and sound, and just as punctually boarded his 10:00 p.m. flight to the United States.

_Fall's End, Hope County, Montana  
2 Days Later_

After landing safely on American soil in Helena, Montana, Troy Harrison caught a ride from a big rig trucker to his rented home in the very small town of Fall's End. This little municipality occupying one edge of Hope County's Holland Valley region was the epitome of a one-church town. There was one main street, a general store, the aforementioned Fall's End Church, and a smattering of homes that still managed to stay standing after Project Eden's Gate had laid siege to the county.

Open, empty lots now occupied the former locations of the few homes and buildings in town that the cult had decided to burn down for one reason or another, or sometimes, no reason. Unfortunately, one such building was the now former location of the Hope County Sheriff's Office, which necessitated everyone's move to the Hope County Jail during the cult's reign.

Harrison briefly set his luggage down and fetched his house key from the pocket of his brown leather jacket. He almost immediately took notice of a note tacked to his front door that had apparently been left by Nick Rye. It had the date from two days prior written at the top of it.

_"__Hey Troy,_

_We heard you were coming back soon. We thought we'd do you a favor and bought you some groceries and supplies from the store. Don't worry about paying us back for now, we're just glad you decided to come back. Welcome home, buddy! Thanks for all you've done._

_-Nick, Kim, and Baby Carmina"_

Harrison smiled, taking great comfort in the Ryes' generosity and gratitude. He unlocked the front door and entered his home. Setting his luggage in the corner, he took notice of the paper grocery bags sitting on the coffee table, which he promptly inspected, finding various food and grocery items, a brand-new black leather shoulder holster for his handgun, the appropriate nine-millimeter ammunition for said handgun, and a green t-shirt sporting the logo of the Hope County Cougars baseball team.

After putting the groceries away in the kitchen, Harrison crossed to the end table near his front door and switched on the CB radio console that sat on top of it. He only heard a brief period of static before recognizing a familiar voice.

"This is Nick Rye calling from Rye Aviation in Hope County", Nick Rye said through the radio, "I'm trying to reach Troy Harrison. Harrison, do you copy, over?"

Harrison scoffed and smiled to himself before picking the CB mic off its cradle and keying it. "This is Troy Harrison in Fall's End acknowledging Nick Rye", he said, "That's a ten-four, good buddy, I copy you loud and clear, over!"

Nick laughed from his end of the radio. "Hey pal", he replied, "Welcome back to the new and improved Hope County, over!"

"Thanks bud", Harrison said, "And thanks a lot for the supplies you guys got me, that's very kind of you, over."

Nick laughed again. "Hey", he said, "anything for my baby girl's godfather. Listen bud, one of the reasons why I'm calling is I got a call yesterday from a private air charter business out of Chicago. The guy called in a flight plan for a Cessna four-oh-two aircraft carrying three passengers intending to land at my airstrip at eight a.m. tomorrow. You know anything about that, over?"

"Ten-four", Harrison replied, "Those would be my new hires on that plane. Sorry about not giving you a heads-up right away, I got busy trying to get my ass back here in time, over."

"No problem man", Nick said, "it's probably easier for them to come straight here anyway, over."

"Thanks Nick", Harrison replied, "I owe you big time buddy, but the good news is I won't be going anywhere again for a while, over."

"Good to hear pal", Nick said, "I'll tell air traffic control to let that Cessna through tomorrow and I'll call you as soon as they arrive, over."

"Copy that", Harrison said, "Thanks again for everything Nick, over. Harrison out."

"Ten-four buddy", Nick said, "Rye Aviation over and out."

Harrison placed the CB mic back on its cradle and sat down on his couch. Being Hope County's new Sheriff certainly wasn't going to be any kind of easy feat, but he could feel that things could only get better from here on out.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: "I Solemnly Swear…"**

_Rye Aviation  
The Next Morning_

As he had promised, Nick Rye called Troy Harrison early the next morning to tell him that the Cessna passenger plane carrying his three friends and soon-to-be new colleagues had touched down at his airstrip. Harrison hurried there, dressed in his dark green Hope County Sheriff's dress uniform with white gloves on his hands and dark green campaign hat on his head. In his hands, he held three zippered suit carriers containing Asher, Xander, and Michaels' new uniforms, and a box of three campaign hats sat by his feet. Today was the official swearing-in ceremony for newly appointed Sheriff Troy Harrison and his three new deputies.

The Cessna plane's exit hatch came open and a set of retractable metal steps extended outward. Harrison was elated to see Sergeant Abigail "Abby" Asher exit the plane first. 27-year-old Asher stood with a petite five-foot-three stature and lean frame with blondish dark brown hair tied in a neat ponytail. Her bookish appearance was rounded out by a pair of black Cat's-eye glasses. Harrison felt refreshed at the sight of Asher wearing her favorite Miranda Lambert concert t-shirt and a pair of well-worn jeans with holes in the knees and brown work boots. She smiled widely as he came toward Harrison.

"I heard there was a new Sheriff in town!" Asher said gleefully as she wrapped Harrison in a warm hug.

Harrison gave Asher a heartfelt, friendly peck on the cheek. "Yes", he replied, "And he needs a new Sergeant. How are you, Abby?"

Asher broke the embrace and briefly kissed Harrison's forehead before replying. "Well I can't complain anymore", Asher replied, "Thanks so much for giving me this chance, Troy, I've been waiting so long to be able to make a change."

"I hope we're able to make it work for you, kiddo", Harrison said, "So were you able to break the ice with the fellas on the plane ride?"

Asher nodded. "Yeah", she said, "They're pretty cool. You worked with them for a while when you were out West right?"

Harrison nodded affirmatively as he looked past Asher to see Adam Xander disembarking from the plane. 30-year-old Xander matched Harrison's height of five-foot-six with an athletic frame. He was dressed in a black Nirvana t-shirt with black and white Adidas wind pants with white running shoes. His light brown hair was neatly shaved in an almost military-style buzzcut. He came toward Harrison with his hand extended, ready for a handshake.

"Adam!" Harrison called out with delight as he extended his own hand, "How you been bro?"

Xander firmly shook his new boss' hand and smiled. "Pretty good buddy", he said, "How does it feel to be the boss again, Sheriff?"

Harrison chuckled at that. "I guess we'll know in just a little bit", he replied.

Dakota Michaels was the last to get off the Cessna. The 29-year-old was about the same height as Harrison and Xander with a somewhat bulkier frame and black hair buzzed into a haircut almost identical to Xander's. He wore a black novelty American flag t-shirt that bared a large image of a Bald Eagle and the large-print slogan: "These Colors Don't Run" with what looked like a brand-new pair of jeans and black hiking boots.

"Hey Dakota!" Harrison called out, "How goes it man?"

Dakota jaunted over to Harrison and greeted him with a high-five and a momentary, friendly hug. "I'm good bud", he replied as he broke the embrace, "The uniform looks great on you, dude!"

Harrison smiled at that. "I appreciate that man", he said, "Hopefully they'll look just as good on all you guys." He then handed them their suit carriers which held their respective uniforms, then handed over the box of hats. Identifying labels on both the hats and uniform carriers each bared the name of the proper recipient.

Just then, Nick and Kim Rye emerged out the back door of their home and curiously eyed the new deputies from their back porch. A half-asleep Baby Carmina was being contently swaddled in a bright pink sling across her mother's chest. "This the new crew, Sheriff?" Nick called out to Harrison and the others.

Harrison turned and smiled at the Rye Family. "Yes sir", he replied, "Come on over, y'all!"

The Ryes came over and shook everyone's hand respectfully as Harrison made the formal introductions. He motioned to Asher first.

"This is Sergeant Abigail Asher", he said, "She's a childhood friend of mine from our hometown in Vermont and we also worked together at the Chicago PD for a while. She'll be the new Corrections Supervisor at the jail. She's as good a friend as she is a cop."

"Nice to meet you Sergeant!" Kim said warmly.

"Likewise," Asher replied, "Please call me 'Abby'. It's Kim, right?"

Kim nodded. "Yes", she said. She then motioned to her chest sling with her eyes. "This little one is Carmina."

Asher smiled as she looked at the tired baby. "Aww", she said softly, "it's nice to meet you too there, cutie."

Harrison continued on with the introductions as he motioned to Xander. "This is Deputy Adam Xander", he said, "We worked Patrol and Homicide together in a police department on the West Coast for a few years. He's a good man and one heck of a cop."

Nick shook Adam's hand firmly. "It's a pleasure, Deputy", he said, "Welcome to Hope County!"

Xander smiled. "The pleasure's all mine, Nick", he replied, "and thank you."

Harrison then rounded out the introductions by motioning to Michaels. "And last but sure as heck not least", he said, "This is Deputy Dakota Michaels. He worked with Adam and I out West. He's a great guy, a skilled paramedic, and one of the most knowledgeable SWAT guys I've ever had the pleasure of working with."

Michaels smiled and shook both the Ryes' hands firmly. "Nice to meet you both!" he said. He then took a look at Baby Carmina. "She's beautiful", he told Kim.

"Thank you", Kim replied warmly, "without the hard work and driving ability of our new sheriff here, I doubt it would've been as easy to bring her into this world."

"That's great", Michaels told her, "I have a three-year-old of my own. Her name's Emma."

Knowing they were dealing with a bit of a time constraint; Harrison abruptly changed the subject. "Do you mind if we use your bathroom to change into our dress uniforms for the ceremony?" he asked Nick.

"No problem dude", Nick replied, "Our house is your house!"

Harrison and the new officers then went inside the Ryes' house. As each of them took a turn in the bathroom to change into their respective uniforms, Nick changed into a suit and tie to attend the ceremony himself.

"Sorry I can't go with you guys to the ceremony", Kim told Harrison.

"No worries dear", he replied with a kindly smile, "my beautiful goddaughter needs her mama after all!"

Kim chuckled before sighing. "I'm very proud of you, Troy", she continued, "I'm sure you'll do us and the rest of Hope County very proud as well."

Touched by her warm sentiment, Harrison gave her a peck on the cheek. "Thank you, Kim," he said, "You and your husband have been so wonderful to me, even before I helped you with Carmina."

The now uniform-clad new officers soon filed into the Ryes' living room, stood at full attention in the direction of the new sheriff, and promptly saluted him. Harrison proudly saluted back to them.

"I think we're ready!" Harrison said.

_Lamb of God Church  
Just outside Fall's End  
One Hour Later_

It seemed as if the entire population of Hope County, Montana had chosen to attend the swearing-in ceremony. Apparently, during the time between Harrison's short-term departure from the county and his return, a lot had changed for the better. Those who had initially been so severely affected by the Bliss attacks that the cult had orchestrated had received both medical and psychological help from the medical teams that had been implemented by way of Governor Albertson's Martial Law order, and thankfully, they had all made a full recovery.

Hope County's school system had made a very obvious comeback as well. For instance, Holland Valley's long-abandoned Saint Isidore School was vastly renovated and turned into the brand-new Holland Valley Elementary School, accommodating grades Kindergarten through sixth. Meanwhile, the Henbane River region's Throne of Mercy Church was another building that had stood abandoned and very dilapidated for an extended period of time way before the Seeds and Project Eden's Gate had made their presence known. As such, the decision was made to have it completely demolished. The Hope County Unified School, accommodating seventh through twelfth grades, was impressively and expeditiously built on the site.

All of these significant positive changes wouldn't have been entirely possible without the compassionate hard work and supportive insights of newly-elected Hope County Mayor Steven McCoy. McCoy was a lifelong Hope County native in his late fifties who had previously served in the Montana State government as Hope County's Democratic State Representative. When Virgil Minkler was tragically murdered during the second jail siege, McCoy was the first to step up and succeed him as Mayor, appointing Sharon Stanley to take his place as State Representative.

Today, Mayor McCoy stood at the podium in the sanctuary of Holland Valley's Lamb of God Church. The audience seemingly went completely silent on a dime as he began his speech.

"Things certainly have not been easy for those of us who live, work, and visit Hope County over the past few months", McCoy began, "In one way or another, we have lost so many hard-working, kind, wonderful people who meant a lot to us." The Mayor took a moment to compose himself, as the thought of whoever he was envisioning in his mind at the moment was obviously getting to him.

"With the cult seemingly having been dealt with appropriately", he continued after a moment, "the brave men and women of the Hope County Sheriff's Department will hopefully have a quieter, cleaner, and less tumultuous county in which to work and also to protect. As I'm sure everyone here will agree, the job of a law enforcement officer is in no way an easygoing one. However, I have the utmost confidence in the incoming Sheriff and his team of deputies. To officially commence the swearing-in of these fine officers, I'm going to turn this podium over to our soon-to-be-very-missed outgoing Sheriff, Mister Earl Whitehorse!"

With that, the crowd erupted in thunderous applause and several standing ovations for Earl Whitehorse. The outgoing Sheriff, stylishly clad in a black and white three-piece suit with a tie bearing the emblem of the local Hope County Cougars baseball team and his ever-present cowboy hat, approached the podium and graciously motioned for the audience to quiet down.

"Thank you all for the support", Whitehorse began, "I have been so incredibly and graciously proud to have served in the Hope County Sheriff's Department, in both my twenty-six years as a Deputy, and especially during my last four years during which I've had the pleasure of serving as Sheriff. It is with both comfort and subtle regret that I hang up my Sheriff's star and make room for someone else."

Whitehorse briefly took a sip of water before continuing. "All of us here have all had our struggles here in Hope County", he went on, "Mostly due to the Seeds and Project Eden's Gate. As Mayor McCoy just said, however, it appears that they have been dealt with appropriately, thanks in no small part to our Governor Albertson, the brave men and women of the FBI, the brave men and women of our Montana National Guard, and our new incoming Hope County Sheriff, Troy Harrison!"

With that, Harrison took that as his cue to stand up for a minute, after which he briefly turned and waved to the crowd with a wide and proud smile. As such, the crowd gave him just as many standing ovations as Whitehorse had been given. The new Sheriff then sat back down so his predecessor could continue.

"Troy has been a law enforcement officer for many years", Whitehorse continued, "He began his career as an FBI Special Agent where he earned the esteemed privileges of being both a behavioral profiler and a forensic science specialist. He later became a Detective with the Chicago Police Department, where he worked in both the Homicide Unit and the cutting-edge Cyber Crime Task Force. He then became a police officer in a West Coast police department, where he worked his way up to being the department's Chief Detective."

Abigail Asher gave Harrison a pleased smile as she listened to Whitehorse's speech. "Those of us at the Hope County Sheriff's Department were then humbled to have him come work for us as a Junior Deputy", Whitehorse said, "and saying he was instrumental in helping us take down Project Eden's Gate could possibly be one of the biggest understatements ever. He has personally and almost single-handedly saved the lives of myself and Deputies Joey Hudson and Staci Pratt, as well as helping Hope County to become our home again. I am honored to know him, and am elated to know that he will wear the same stripes on the shoulders of his uniform that I had the pride of wearing. So therefore, I present to you our new Hope County Sheriff, Troy Harrison!"

The audience shot to their feet as nearly all of them gave Harrison huge standing ovations. He humbly made his way to the podium and gratefully shook hands with Whitehorse, and in return, the outgoing sheriff unexpectedly gave him a momentary hug before returning to his seat. He lightly tapped the podium's microphone before starting to speak.

"Thank you, Earl," Harrison said, "and when I say 'thank you', I truly mean that. Even though I was incredibly surprised and humbled by your offer to have me succeed you as Hope County's new sheriff, I was even more so overjoyed to accept it. I'd like to promise you, however, that as excited as I am to be wearing the Sheriff's star, no one will ever truly take your place in our department."

The audience gave both Harrison and Whitehorse a heartfelt round of applause before the former continued. "I'm actually going to keep this relatively short today", Harrison went on, "I've never been too big on giving speeches. However, I would like to promise the members of my department, some of whom are brand new, some have been around the block and back, that I will lead with pride and respect to continue to make Hope County a decent home, a secure place to work, and just a safe place overall for those who live, work, or visit our county."

Applause broke out for a few minutes before Harrison put a hand up to quiet down the crowd. "…and obviously", he continued, "that promise I just made applies to our amazing and resilient citizens of Hope County as well. This is our home, our work place, OUR place and no one can bring us down. Thank you all very much!"

Yet another round of thunderous applause and standing ovations from the audience erupted as Harrison saluted them from the podium just before Mayor McCoy came up opposite him. "Congratulations Sheriff Harrison!" the Mayor humbly said, "Now if you'll please raise your right hand and repeat after me, I'll officially administer the oath to you."

Harrison gladly did as the Mayor had instructed and raised his right hand, looking directly at Mayor McCoy. "I, Troy Daniel Harrison", McCoy recited for Harrison to repeat, "promise to uphold and defend the constitutions of both the United States and the State of Montana from all enemies, both foreign and domestic."

Harrison repeated the first portion of the oath verbatim. "…and promise to discharge the duties bestowed upon me by my position as Sheriff of Hope County, Montana, proudly and with respect to both the law and our citizens, so help me God", McCoy recited the second portion of the oath.

Harrison repeated the oath's second portion of the oath verbatim as well. "Congratulations, Sheriff Harrison!" McCoy said as the entire room, audience members and fellow officers alike, erupted in cheers and applause.

Abigail Asher, Adam Xander, and Dakota Michaels soon followed suit, proudly having the official oath administered to them by Mayor McCoy. The formal appointment of the new sheriff and his three new officers had finally been made, and the four of them made their way into the crowd, greeting everyone, shaking hands, and the like.

Sometime later, the post-ceremony festivities were in full swing as a barbecue was held on the church's front lawn. Sheriff Harrison was in the process of pouring himself a cola when two young men, also dressed in Hope County Sheriff's dress uniforms and campaign hats, came up to him.

"Sheriff Harrison?" one of the men asked. He was a tan-skinned gentleman that looked to be in his early to mid-twenties.

"Yes sir, that's me", he replied.

The young man extended a white-gloved hand. "It's so nice to finally meet you, sir", he said, "I'm Michael Whitehorse, I'm…"

"Earl's son", Harrison replied as he firmly shook his hand, "Your dad has told me so much about you. I'm looking forward to working with you."

Deputy Michael Whitehorse nodded politely in response before motioning to the other young man beside him. His friend looked to be about his same age and looked to have a very athletically-built figure. "This is Deputy Kevin Dodd", Whitehorse introduced, "My partner."

Harrison shook Dodd's hand just as firmly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kevin", he said, "Now that's Kevin Dodd Junior, right?"

Kevin Dodd nodded with a slight smirk. "Yes sir", he replied, "My father's 'Kevin' too. He runs our local sanitation company here in Hope County."

"I see", Harrison said with interest, "and Earl told me that your mom owns Aubrey's Diner in Henbane River, right?"

"That's right", Dodd replied, "She wanted me to work there as a fry cook after high school, but I had other plans." He smiled with a sense of pride.

Harrison nodded. "Plans like going for a law degree at O.U. and playing football for the Oklahoma Sooners, huh?" he asked, knowing full well what his answer would be.

Dodd scoffed. "Earl told you?" he asked.

"Yeah", Harrison replied, "but actually he didn't even have to tell me. I watch O.U. football every season. You can run like the wind, man!"

Dodd laughed at the compliment. "Thank you, sir," he said graciously.

Harrison sipped his cola for a moment. "Earl has you guys working Patrol on the dayshift for now, right?" he asked Deputy Whitehorse.

"Correct", Whitehorse replied, "We drive all around Holland Valley from seven a.m. to seven p.m. five days a week. Why do you ask?"

"Well", Harrison replied, "I'm thinking that since our new sergeant and our two new deputies are here, I'd like to switch things up a bit. I don't mean to give you guys too little notice here, but would you mind if I reassigned you both to work with Sergeant Asher at the jail?"

Deputies Whitehorse and Dodd looked at each other as they pondered the new sheriff's abrupt offer before both of them shrugged their shoulders. "Okay", Whitehorse replied, "Maybe a change would do us good."

Harrison nodded. "Okay then", he said, "I'd like you both to report to the jail at seven o' clock tomorrow morning and check in with Sergeant Asher. You'll be the new Correctional Deputies on the dayshift."

The two deputies stood at attention as if they were back in the Police Academy. "Yes sir", they both replied in unison.

With that, Sheriff Harrison had a newfound sense of confidence in himself and his deputies. He could tell that, even though things certainly wouldn't be a walk in the park, this whole situation had the potential to be a very beneficial one.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Switching Things Up**

_Hope County Jail & Sheriff's Office  
Henbane River  
7:00 AM_

Some very considerable changes had occurred both during the Project Eden's Gate cult's overtaking of Hope County and in the time immediately leading up to the implementation of Governor John Albertson's Martial Law order. During the initial stages of the cult's intrusion, the original Hope County Sheriff's Office in Fall's End was savagely burned down by Peggies, and likewise, the Hope County Jail in the Henbane River region suffered an extensive amount of structural damage during the two massive sieges. An entire housing unit had to be completely torn down, thus cutting the jail's overall housing capacity by fifteen cells. On the positive side of things, while new Sheriff Troy Harrison was in Japan recovering from all the Eden's Gate chaos, the space once occupied by the now wiped out housing unit had been thoroughly rebuilt and turned into the brand-new Hope County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies Michael Whitehorse and Kevin Dodd, Jr. arrived at the jail as scheduled on this particular morning. When they entered the jail's empty Main Housing Unit, they were greeted by the entirety of the Hope County Sheriff's Department: Sheriff Troy Harrison, Sergeant Abigail "Abby" Asher, Deputy Joey Hudson, Deputy Staci Pratt, Deputy Adam Xander, and Deputy Dakota Michaels. Newly appointed Sheriff Harrison was eager to give everyone his first official morning briefing.

"Good morning Michael", Harrison greeted warmly, "Good morning Kevin."

"Good morning Sheriff!" Whitehorse replied.

"Yes", Dodd said, "Good morning Sheriff."

The two deputies fell in line, standing politely beside the others. "And that 'good morning' obviously applies to the rest of you folks, too", Harrison said, "Now then, I'd like to begin my first official morning briefing as Hope County's new Sheriff by introducing our department's new Corrections Supervisor, Sergeant Abigail Asher. Sergeant, could you step up here, please?"

With that, Sergeant Asher stepped to the middle of the room and stood politely beside Harrison. "To clarify", Harrison matter-of-factly continued, "Sergeant Asher will be in charge of all the essential operations regarding the Hope County Jail. The five exterior guard towers surrounding the building, the Intake Desk by the entrance, the fifteen-cell Main Housing Unit in which we're all currently standing, and the five-bed Infirmary next door, are all her domain. Anything to add, Sergeant?"

Sergeant Asher grabbed a clipboard off a nearby table before replying. "Thank you, Sheriff," she said, "I have been assigned three deputies who will work alongside me inside this jail from seven a.m. to seven a.m. Monday through Friday." She briefly eyed the shift schedule on the clipboard before elaborating further. "Effective immediately", she went on, "The shift schedule goes as follows: Deputies Whitehorse and Dodd, I'm assigning you unit patrol on the dayshift. That means you two will be responsible for doing foot patrols of both this Main Housing Unit and the Infirmary every morning, and again as needed. Deputy Pratt, you'll be handling prisoner intake out front."

"For your information, gentlemen", Asher continued, "Meal breaks will be at noon and four p.m., respectively, and will last approximately thirty minutes. While you are on your breaks, I myself will take over the necessary foot patrols and cell checks. Any of you other deputies who aren't on active calls or handling any other urgent police business are welcome to pitch in and help with anything at any time. It would be greatly appreciated."

Sheriff Harrison then saw an opportunity to add to Sergeant Asher's comments, first nodding in agreement with what she had just said. "Furthermore, guys", Harrison said, "I'm going to require that at least once a week, those who are assigned to work Patrol swap places with those of you who work with Sergeant Asher here at the jail, and vice versa. This is so those of you on one side of the fence get a good idea of what those on the other side have to deal with."

Everyone seemed to be agreeable to that stipulation. "Does that apply to command staff too, Sheriff?" Asher asked.

Harrison gave a slight smile. "You know it, Sarge", he said.

Just then, Sheriff Harrison's cell phone buzzed, and he promptly checked it. "Okay", Harrison said as he was momentarily caught off guard, "Those of you who have not been specifically assigned to work with Sergeant Asher here at the jail, please follow me over to the Sheriff's Office for your patrol and vehicle assignments." He gave a nod to Asher. "Thanks Abby", he said, "I'll be in my office if you or the guys need anything."

Asher smiled and gave a nod of her own. "Copy that, boss. Thank you."

As Asher and the Correctional Deputies dispersed to get to work, Harrison and the remaining deputies: Hudson, Xander, and Michaels, headed toward the wing occupied by the new Sheriff's Office. He stopped at a reinforced metal security door that separated the Hope County Jail from the Sheriff's Office. A numbered security keypad with an attached keycard scanner sat just to the right of the door.

"This keypad and scanner are the best way to pass through the two sides of this complex", Harrison began to explain as he pointed to the keypad, "You can either manually punch in your personal numbered key code, which is stamped on the back of your department keycard, or…" He demonstrated how to properly run the card through the scanner, after which the security door came unlocked, "…just make it simple and scan your card through." Harrison turned the handle on the security door and held it open so the others could follow him.

Harrison led his deputies into the department garage and stood by a huge wall unit that contained all the keys to the department vehicles, with each key hanging on their own associated hook in the unit. The sheriff tossed one set of keys to Adam Xander. "Adam", he said, "You and Dakota have Dodd and Whitehorse's old patrol route in the Holland Valley today. You guys will be in vehicle number two-fourteen, the white and green Chevy Tahoe cruiser. Just a reminder, your vehicle number is also your radio call sign."

"Got it", Xander said as he and Michaels headed out.

Harrison grabbed another set of keys from the wall unit and handed them to Joey Hudson. "You and I have the Henbane River region today Joey", he told her, "We'll be in vehicle two-twelve, the Expedition cruiser. You all good?"

Hudson pocketed the keys. "Yes sir", she said, "I'm hope I'm not speaking out of turn or anything, Sheriff, but can I ask you a question?"

Harrison momentarily snapped out of his "eager-to-hit-the-streets" mood, realizing that his deputy seemed troubled. "Always", he said, "What's up?"

Hudson sighed deeply as she was trying to figure out how to properly ask the particular question. "Why did you pull Staci Pratt off Patrol?" she asked, "Earl had he and I paired up since you went away. Why all of a sudden are you sticking him indoors?"

"Because Earl expressed concern to me that Pratt was still struggling with the trauma he felt since the Seeds kidnapped you guys a while back", he replied, "The whole reason he paired you guys up is because he was uneasy about letting him ride alone after that car accident he had."

"I guess I'm just worried that he'll go stir crazy working twelve hour shifts in that cold, spooky-ass jail", Hudson said, "Staci earned his stripes on the streets."

Harrison nodded. "We all have, kid", he replied, "Look, remember when you promised me that you'd follow my lead after I rescued you from that bunker?"

"Of course," Hudson replied.

"Alright then", Harrison said very matter-of-factly, "I'm asking you to follow my lead with this. Staci will be okay. Asher, Dodd, and Whitehorse will keep a good eye on him for now. They're all well aware of what we all went through with the Peggies, and if anything happens, Asher will let us know."

A now re-assured Hudson managed a slight smile. "Okay", she said.

Harrison nodded. "Okay", he said, "I have a visitor in my office. Would you mind collecting all our equipment? I shouldn't be more than ten minutes or so, I'll meet you at the car."

With that, Hudson went to the supply locker to gather the necessary equipment for their patrol car. Harrison, meanwhile, headed to the small dispatch center where dayshift dispatcher Betty Adams sat at her console, a microphone headset on her head. Betty Adams was a heavyset white woman appearing to be in her mid-fifties, dressed in a very stylish crimson red sweater and a long skirt that matched the color of her sweater.

"You must be Betty Adams", he said.

Betty turned around in her wheeled desk chair to address the sheriff. "I am", she said as she warmly extended a hand, "It's an immense pleasure and honor to finally meet you, Sheriff Harrison."

Harrison smiled politely as he accepted and reciprocated her kindly handshake. "It's very nice to meet you too Betty", he replied, "I got the text message you sent me. So, who's in my office?"

"Her name is Sharon Stanley", Betty said, "She's apparently the State Representative for Hope County. She came down from Helena and wanted to talk to you about something. I'm assuming it's some kind of urgent matter."

Harrison nodded. "Got it", he said, "Again, it's great to meet you, and thanks for the heads up."

Betty smiled. "Not a problem, sir", she said, "I'm here from seven a.m. to seven p.m. Monday through Friday if you need anything. My son, Evan, is the dispatcher after that."

"Great", Harrison replied, "Thanks again, Betty."

Harrison headed down the hall to his new spacious office. A woman was sitting in a chair in front of his desk, working on a cell phone.

"Miss Stanley?" Harrison inquired as he stepped inside his office.

Sharon Stanley put her phone away momentarily and stood up out of her seat, extending a hand to Harrison. "Yes", she said, "Sharon Stanley. It's so nice to finally meet you, Sheriff."

Harrison politely shook her hand before taking a seat behind his desk. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting ma'am", he said, "but Deputy Hudson and I were about to go out on patrol, so I only have limited time here."

Stanley returned to her chair and collected herself. "I'll cut to the chase", she said, "I don't know if Sheriff Whitehorse told you, but my office has been conducting a concurrent investigation into Project Eden's Gate along with the local, state, and federal authorities."

"I was made aware of that when I returned to Hope County, yes", he replied.

Stanley presented him with a file folder, the front of which bared the official seal of the State of Montana. "I just wanted to let you know that the State Attorney General has ruled the deaths of all the cult members, including those who you yourself took down, as justifiable under state law. There's the official report signed by the AG himself."

Harrison sighed deeply before opening the folder and glancing over the report. "So basically, we've all been cleared of any wrongdoing", he said, trying to sum up the report's conclusions out loud for himself.

Stanley nodded in a reassuring kind of way. "You have", she said, "And the U.S. Attorney's Office concurs at the federal level as well. Our investigation into the cult isn't entirely done just yet, but you and your deputies can rest easy."

Harrison placed the folder containing the official report in a desk drawer and rose from his seat, again extending a hand to Sharon Stanley. "Thank you", he said, "I'll make sure we do just that."

Stanley shook the sheriff's hand once again. "If there's anything else you need from any of us at the State Capital", she said, "Don't be a stranger."

Harrison reciprocated the State Representative's gesture by walking her out to her vehicle. He then got into his and Deputy Hudson's assigned patrol vehicle, a brand new four-wheel-drive Ford Expedition SUV, wherein Deputy Hudson was behind the wheel and ready to go.

"You all good now, Sheriff?" Hudson asked.

"Yes ma'am", he said, "Let's roll."

_Henbane River Bridge  
3 Hours Later_

By now, Sheriff Harrison and Deputy Hudson had their patrol SUV parked beside the entrance of the Henbane River Bridge that lead to the nearby Holland Valley region of Hope County. They had spent the last few hours sitting in the vehicle searching for speeders, aiming their radar gun at any and every car that passed by. However, pretty much every motorist that passed by them seemed to be driving within the posted speed limit, so the speed trap they had set up seemed to be quite the fruitless endeavor so far.

"You, Earl, and the others have met State Representative Stanley before, right?" Harrison finally asked Hudson, wanting to break up the monotony of the last few hours.

Joey Hudson took off her campaign hat and wiped sweat from her forehead before replying. "Yeah", she said, "While you were at that hospital in Missoula, we met with her and Governor Albertson in Helena. Why?"

"That's who came to see me at this office this morning", Harrison said, "She said that the State Attorney General has personally cleared the Hope County Sheriff's Department of any criminal wrongdoing in the deaths of the cult members." He gave his deputy a relieved smile.

Hudson gave a pleased smile of her own. "So, we're all in the clear?" she asked.

Harrison nodded. "Right as rain", he said before putting his hand up for a high-five.

Hudson high-fived her boss happily and took a moment to just laugh with relief. "Oh man", she said after taking a deep breath and collecting herself, "That's freaking awesome, man. Freaking awesome."

"Tell me about it, kid", Harrison replied, "What a great way to start my term as Sheriff, right?"

Hudson nodded. "Absolutely", she said, "So, tell me more about those new folks you brought in. You've known and worked with all of them for a while, right?"

"One way or another, yes", Harrison said, "Abby Asher and I grew up together back in Vermont and then we worked out of the same Chicago PD district station for a while. Adam and Dakota worked with me out West for four and half years. In fact, they were my subordinates when I was Chief Detective."

"Asher seems pretty tough", Hudson said.

"She is", Harrison replied, "But she's had to be. She was an undercover detective for CPD Narcotics for about two years. She sometimes had to use drugs to prove to the dealers that she wasn't a cop or a snitch, and it got away from her after a while."

"'Got away from her'?" a confused Hudson asked.

Harrison sighed deeply, almost apprehensive to approach the subject. "A certain percentage of the drug trade in Chicago is made via opioid pills", he began to explain, "Most of the cases Asher and her squad handled involved what we called 'pill mills', manufacturing bootleg painkillers that were almost always either cut wrong or poorly made, upping the chances for people to overdose."

Hudson put two and two together. "...and Abby used to maintain her cover one too many times and got hooked, right?" she asked.

Harrison nodded, almost tearful. "Yeah", he said, "About six months before I left Chicago, I got a call from her one night while I was in the middle of working a homicide scene. She apparently had the bright idea to crush and snort a few pills off the steering wheel of her own unmarked detective car. Little did she realize, there was a CPD patrol car stopped at a red light not twenty feet away from where she was parked. They charged her with a DUI."

"What happened after that?" Hudson asked.

"The State Attorney and the police union let her cut a deal in exchange for no jail time", Harrison continued, "She was put on so-called 'sick leave' and the judge sent her to rehab for three months, after which I begged our Police Superintendent to let her keep her badge once she cleaned up. It worked and she made Sergeant sometime after that, but they parked her on desk duty at CPD Headquarters, or 'the Ivory Tower' as we called it."

"They threw her a bone", Hudson said.

Harrison nodded once again. "I guess I threw her a bigger one to come and work with us out here", he said, "At least here she'll hopefully be able to be the cop that she originally set out to be."

"Still", Hudson replied, "That's one hell of a risk to take for an old friend."

"I'm well aware of that, Joey", Harrison said, "But you don't know Abby. She's much more than just a tough, mouthy cop with a damaged reputation. She has the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known, but she is a fighter. It just seems like I'm one of the few people in her life that's willing to look beyond the latter."

Just then, Harrison's cell phone buzzed once again. He promptly checked it, and his face was overcome by a very perplexed look.

"Is that Betty Adams again?" Hudson asked.

"No", Harrison replied, "It's a text from Willis Huntley, that CIA dweeb I dealt with while we were fighting the Peggies. He wants you, me, and Abby to meet him out at Sunrise Farm tonight at seven-thirty."

"What the hell would that numb-nuts want from us now?" an equally baffled Hudson asked, "And why ask for Abby?"

"I have no idea", Harrison said, "but it can't mean anything good."


	6. Chapter 6

_[Author's Note: I realize that the pace of this story has been a bit of a slow burn, but there's more action to come, that I can promise you. Also, in case some or all of you were wondering, Sheriff Harrison, Deputy Xander, and Deputy Michaels' past of working at a police department "out West" is somewhat of a reference to another video game. I didn't get more into it because one, I don't want to go off on a tangent about their pasts "out West" more than I already have and two, I didn't want to make this story too much of a crossover. Although the earlier "Shenmue" stuff was cool, making obvious references to the other game just to flesh out a tiny subplot would be too much, in my opinion. Thanks for all your support and for hanging in there with me so far!]_

**Chapter 6: Ominous Warnings**

_Sunrise Farm  
Holland Valley Region, Hope County  
7:30 PM_

After a long twelve hours of either waiting at a speed trap in the Henbane River region, handling intoxicated and/or belligerent inmates at the jail, and fairly peaceful, uneventful patrols in the Holland Valley, all Hope County Sheriff Troy Harrison and his deputies wanted to do was go home and sleep. However, this mutual plan shared by Sheriff Harrison, Deputy Joey Hudson, and Sergeant Abigail "Abby" Asher was sidetracked after Willis Huntley, a CIA agent who the sheriff once crossed paths with and thoroughly disliked, had requested a seemingly clandestine meeting with the three of them at Sunrise Farm, a small pumpkin farm and farmer's market just outside the town of Fall's End.

Harrison, Hudson, and Asher rode to the farm in the sheriff's personal vehicle, a blue 2018 Dodge Charger outfitted with off-road wheels of which he was very proud. The three drove up the farm's small dirt driveway and almost immediately took note of three unmarked black Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs with very darkly-tinted windows parked in a pristine formation behind one another near the open entrance of the farm's proverbial red barn.

"What is this?" Hudson asked, "a goddamn sci-fi movie?"

Troy Harrison smirked as he stopped the car and put it in park. "Looks like it, huh?" he humorously replied, "All I know that if the CIA is involved, you guys better get ready to interact with a lot of eerie, smartly-dressed folks who aren't exactly fully accustomed to telling people the whole truth."

Abigail Asher gave a smirk of her own at that. "Oh boy", she sarcastically said, "I can't wait."

The three got out of the car and walked toward the barn entrance. They were soon greeted by a very tall bald white man dressed in a generic-looking black business suit who seemed to just appear from out of the barn. "Identification, please", he flatly said.

The three reached into their pockets and produced their badges and identification for this impromptu guard. "Sheriff Troy Harrison", Harrison said, "Hope County Sheriff's Department." He then motioned to Hudson. "This is Deputy Joey Hudson", he continued before motioning to Asher, "and my Sergeant, Abigail Asher. Willis Huntley's expecting us."

The very ominous-seeming door guard thoroughly eyed each of their badges and IDs before gesturing for them to follow him inside the barn. Inside, the three took note of eight folding metal chairs set up in front of a large projector screen with what looked like a very high-end projector set up nearby. This barn's interior had apparently been completely stripped and set up for whatever kind of viewing Willis Huntley had planned.

Just then, the three were startled when an overhead light suddenly came on, illuminating five sharply-dressed people, four of them men and the fifth a woman, standing just to the left of the projector. The first to speak was senior CIA agent Willis Huntley, a petite white man in his early sixties clad in a black business suit with his ever-present Fedora hat.

"Thank you all for coming", Huntley said, "and we apologize for the cloak-and-dagger routine."

Harrison took his opportunity to speak up. "No problem", he sarcastically said, "So what if we've all just come off of a twelve-hour shift and are all major exhausted. We love taking time away from our valuable sleep schedules to entertain the good folks at the Central Intelligence Agency. Right, ladies?"

Hudson and Asher nodded with just as much sarcasm as their sheriff. "Ladies", Harrison continued, "I'd like to introduce Mister Willis Huntley, senior CIA pencil pusher who likes outsourcing local sheriff's deputies to intercept Russian sleeper cells and stick them in the firing line of twelve wild Peggies."

Huntley smirked. "It's great to see you again, too, Mister Harrison", he said condescendingly, "Congrats on your promotion, Sheriff."

"Thanks", Harrison replied before motioning to the five others on either side of Huntley, "Now would you mind introducing us to your backup singers please?"

A tall man in his mid-forties stepped forward. He had a telltale Marine buzzcut and an FBI seal pin tacked on his necktie. "I know it's been a while, Troy", he said, "but one would think you'd remember me, bud."

It took Harrison a quick second, and the small gasp and wide smile signified his remembrance. "Denny?!", he inquired, "Denny Donovan?!"

FBI Special Agent in Charge Dennis "Denny" Donovan promptly came over and hugged his old friend for a minute. Harrison and Donovan had known each other for years, having been in the same FBI Academy training class and later working together for two years as rookie Special Agents in the Bureau's Seattle Field Office. "How've you been, big man?" Harrison asked.

"Can't complain, buddy" Donovan said, "Glad to see you've faired well after leaving the Bureau. Hope County Sheriff, huh?"

Harrison looked briefly at Donovan's clip-on FBI ID card. "Look who's talking", he said, "Special Agent in Charge, man, cool! Where'd they post you?"

"I've been running the Bureau's resident agency over in Butte", Donovan replied, "Since I made SAC about three years ago."

"I hate to interrupt this touching reunion", Huntley said as he motioned to the three others standing beside him, "but I would appreciate if you other folks could introduce yourselves, please?"

A towering tan-skinned gentleman stepped forward. "My name is Anatoly Borshev", he said with a heavy Russian accent, "I'm the CIA's Moscow, Russia Station Chief."

Then, a short, very dapper-looking man with short white hair stepped forward. "My name is Richard Pedwick", he said with a very proper British accent, "I'm the Station Chief representing the Agency in London, England."

Harrison, Asher, and Hudson were then surprised to see a woman step forward following Pedwick's introduction. She was an attractively tall blonde woman appearing to be in her mid-forties, and she would have seemed out of place if it weren't for the fact that she was wearing a black pant suit that looked very similar to her male counterparts. "My name is Ingrid Strousberg", she said with a very well-defined Dutch accent, "CIA Station Chief representing Amsterdam in the Netherlands."

Huntley then motioned to the eight metal chairs. "If you wouldn't mind taking a seat over here, please", he said, "I'd be happy to get to the point of why we're all here, and why we asked for you folks."

The eight attendees promptly took their seats, after which Huntley stepped to the front of the room and stood beside the projector. He produced a small remote control from the breast pocket of his suit jacket and pressed a button. With a high-pitched beep, a very large image of Faith Seed appeared in high definition on the projector screen.

"I suppose you all know who this is?" Huntley asked.

Just the thought of the late Faith Seed made Sheriff Harrison's face sour with anxiety. "You know we do Huntley", he said coldly, "That's Faith Seed, one of the so-called 'heralds' for the Project Eden's Gate cult, adopted sibling of the Seed brothers, and all-around manipulative, drug-crazy, psychopathic bitch. Her designer drug 'Bliss' killed three friends of ours, two of whom were fellow law enforcement officers, and almost killed me and my predecessor, Sheriff Whitehorse…"

Willis Huntley put his hand up to try and put a stop to the sheriff's rant. "Sheriff Harrison, please…"

A now increasingly angry Harrison ignored the CIA agent's request and opted to continue his ranting just to prove a point. "…Not to mention being used to brainwash a bunch of really good people in this county, people we all deeply care about and would give our lives to protect. Thankfully, the military aid that the governor brought in saved everybody and was instrumental in getting some semblance of normal back here. Oh, and dare I mention, the aforementioned bitch is dead. I took her down myself earlier this summer."

Huntley sighed. "Are you done?" he asked.

Harrison shrugged his shoulders and smirked. "I guess that about sums it up, Mister Huntley", he said.

Huntley then gave a knowing smirk of his own. "As much as I enjoyed that very informative rant of yours", he replied, "I have to respectfully disagree with you, Sheriff. That's not all there is." He then turned to Sergeant Abigail Asher. "Sergeant Asher, I presume?"

"Yes sir", Asher replied.

"You are a longtime friend and colleague of Sheriff Harrison here, correct?" Huntley asked.

Asher nodded. "I am", she said, "He and I have been friends for about twenty years, and we also worked together at the same Chicago Police district station for two years."

"Were the two of you detailed to uniform together in the early morning hours of February first, two-thousand-eleven?" Huntley asked.

Caught off guard, Asher shot Harrison a confused look before replying. "Yes, we were", she began to explain, "There was a bad snow storm that week, and the entire Chicago area got roughly twenty or so inches of snow dumped on it. To make sure there was enough manpower on the streets while the city workers dealt with the storm, our CPD district commander temporarily pulled several detectives, including Troy and I, from our regular assignments and ordered us back to uniformed patrol to answer calls and assist those affected by the storm."

"I see", Huntley said, "And does any particular call stand out from any of the others you responded to that morning?" he asked.

"Where's this going Huntley?" an irritated Harrison blurted out.

With that, Huntley again pressed the button on the projector remote. When the slide changed, the image of Faith Seed was replaced with that of an adorable baby girl laying in a hospital bassinet. "Recognize this baby?" Huntley asked.

Asher and Harrison both gave nods of recognition as soon as they saw the baby. "Yes", Asher said, "All the Chicago area media outlets dubbed her 'Baby Augustine'. She had been abandoned and left in a box and blanket outside Saint Augustine's Church during the snowstorm. Troy and I were the ones who found her that morning."

"What if I were to tell you that this beautiful little girl has a connection to the cult", Huntley asked, "specifically to Faith and Joseph Seed?"

"Alright Huntley", Harrison said, "Enough with the damn questions, okay?" He then turned around and addressed the others in the room. "How about you guys hit us with the facts, please?"

Dennis Donovan stepped to the front of the room and stood beside Huntley. "As you know", he began, "When the governor's Martial Law order was imposed on Hope County, the FBI took custody of any and all evidence relating to the Seeds. This included what was left of Faith Seed's remains following the explosion that killed her."

Harrison nodded. "You of all people know I was an FBI agent for ten years, Denny" he said, "I know all the procedures. You sent her remains to the Quantico lab for examination, right?"

Donovan nodded. "The Quantico pathologist confirmed the identity of the remains as that of twenty-four-year-old Rachel Jessop", he continued, "which as you know, was Faith Seed's true birth name. Postmortem examination of her uterus determined that she, at one point in her life, had gone through a full-term pregnancy and given birth to a child."

Asher's jaw dropped. "Are you saying that Baby Augustine was hers?" she asked.

Donovan sighed. "I'm afraid so", he said, "A saliva sample was taken from the baby at a Chicago hospital and submitted to the CPD Crime Lab database, where it remained for several years. That is, until our lab personnel found partial matches to the known DNA profiles of both Joseph Seed and Rachel Jessop, a.k.a. Faith Seed. Baby Augustine is their biological daughter."

Harrison put a hand over his mouth for a minute. "Holy shit", he softly said, barely able to get the words out.

Joey Hudson then raised her hand politely. "That's certainly a big surprise", she said, "but what does this 'Baby Augustine' case in Chicago have to do with the state of affairs here in Hope County nowadays?"

"I'm afraid that's the kicker Deputy", Donovan said with a very detectibly regretful tone in his voice, "As much as we in the nationwide and international governments are truly afraid to admit this, we believe that there are still remnants of Project Eden's Gate lingering in other locations around the world."

"Wait a second", Asher chimed in, "You're telling us that the cult that Troy, Joey, and all those other people fought earlier this year is still in business? Didn't you FBI guys work with the National Guard to bust Joseph Seed and take out any other Peggie that stood in your way?"

Donovan nodded. "That we did, Sergeant", he replied, "And, actually, it was an international joint effort between us, the CIA, and all law enforcement agencies around the world."

"But you're saying there's still a flaw in that armor?" Asher asked.

Just then, Russian CIA Station Chief Anatoly Borshev stood up from his seat and made his way toward the projector. "It appears that unfortunately, there is, yes", he said. He politely took the projector remote from Huntley and pressed a button, advancing the slide. This new image was that of a vehicle caravan consisting of what appeared to be four sedans, but it was hard to tell due to the vehicles being blown to Kingdom Come, leaving black, burnt, soot-covered shells of what the vehicles used to be in their place.

"This was a security caravan flanking a transport vehicle containing 22-year-old Russian actor Mikhail Vasiev", Borshev began to explain, "He may not be very well-known to those of you Americans, but he's gained a lot of notoriety in my home country of Russia. He was a pornographic actor who, after an arrest for heroin possession, decided to try and repair his image by switching to mainstream films."

"He was killed?" Harrison asked.

Borshev shook his head. "No", he replied, "Starting about three months ago, he began receiving letters which essentially were threats on his life." Borshev switched the slide once again, this new image showing a copied image of one of the letters that Mikhail Vasiev had received, the letter's typed text being written in Cyrillic, the written language common to Eastern European counties such as Russia and Ukraine. One thing stood out to everyone in the room, however: the bottom right-hand edge of the letter showed the unmistakable logo of the Project Eden's Gate cult.

"You said this guy Vasiev used to be a porn star, right?" Harrison asked.

"Yes", Borshev asked.

Harrison took a second to think. "So therefore", he said, "he'd be someone the Peggies would consider as a 'sinner'. What did happen to him?"

"Six weeks ago," Borshev continued, "Vasiev and his security team were on the way to the Bolshoi theater in Moscow. Vasiev's girlfriend is a ballerina with the theater's dance company who was due to perform in a show later that afternoon. They were slowing the cars down to stop for a traffic light in the city's Theatre Square when both pairs of vehicles on either side of the car containing Vasiev seemed to simultaneously explode. Four security agents were killed, while Vasiev and his only remaining bodyguard survived with concussions and injuries from flying glass."

"What made you so sure the Peggies were involved?" Hudson asked.

"The police bomb technicians were able to reconstruct the explosive devices attached to each car's gas tank", Borshev said, "which were apparently C-4 charges detonated by remote. Each charge had the Project Eden's Gate logo on them."

Dutch CIA Station Chief Ingrid Strousberg then stood from her seat. "There was a similar explosion at a subway station in Amsterdam a few weeks after that", she said, "Mister Borshev, do you have that slide available?"

Borshev cycled through the slides until he found the particular slide to which Strousberg referred. By this time, Strousberg had made her way to the projector beside Borshev and Huntley. The slide's image was of the very burnt and badly charred interior of a subway station. "Six people died while waiting for a commuter train at around nine-thirty in the morning", Strousberg said, "The bomb consisted of the same remotely-detonated C-4 charges with the cult logo on them. However, there was one thing that differentiated this particular case from the others."

"You guys were actually able to catch the bomber on this one", Harrison said, "I heard it on the radio. He called himself 'a prophet of God' or something like that, right?"

"That's correct, Sheriff", Strousberg said, "There was an off-duty Amsterdam policeman waiting for a train on the opposite corner of the station when the bombs went off. When the initial shock subsided, he was able to see a short white male subject in a white hooded sweatshirt running away from one of the station's pillars. The subject had positioned himself too far away to have just been merely reacting to the explosion."

"Were you able to properly ID him?" Asher asked.

Strousberg switched the slide over to a suspect identification sheet. The suspect appeared to be a gaunt bald-headed white man in his early to mid-twenties. "He refused to identify himself to the local police", she said, "but a comprehensive international fingerprint identified him as twenty-one-year-old Damien Ivy."

Just then, British CIA Station Chief Richard Pedwick chimed in as he stood from his seat. "Damien Ivy is a person of interest to the British federal authorities", he explained, "and has been for some time now. The police in London were investigating him for blowing up the building where his own flat was located roughly a year ago."

"I'm sorry", Hudson interjected, "his 'flat'?"

Harrison smirked. "it's what British people call 'apartments', Joey", he said. The entire room momentarily erupted in laughter. "Any other intelligence on this Ivy character?" he asked Pedwick.

"The London police constables discovered he has ties to an obscure church that's apparently nothing more than a clever front for these Eden's Gate buggers", Pedwick replied, "or…'Peggies' as you all so colorfully seem to want to call them."

"Is your agency surveilling this church?" Hudson asked.

"The CIA cannot confirm or deny the status of any ongoing surveillance operations", Willis Huntley said, "But we can tell you that the counterterrorism branch of the London Police has the church listed as an 'active target'."

"One last thing", Dennis Donovan added. He took the projector remote from Ingrid Strousberg and pressed the button. The slide advanced to an image of the photographed fleet of white Eden's Gate vehicles. "I take it you all recognize these various vehicles", he said.

"Yeah", Hudson replied, "the cult had a whole fleet of them. They arrived in the county in them. According to our old sheriff, Earl Whitehorse, the FBI took custody of pretty much all of them in accordance with the Martial Law order."

"That's correct, Deputy Hudson", Donovan said, "We took all fifty-seven vehicles we found into evidentiary custody and had them sent to our lab in Virginia for processing. However, records kept by the Seeds indicate that three vehicles, two pickup trucks and an armored gun boat, were missing from the fleet we found. We suspect they're still out there somewhere."

Sheriff Harrison put two and two together. "So, you want us to keep a look out for them and report back to you if we see them", he said.

Donovan stepped away from the projector and went to Harrison's seat, handing him a business card. "Please do", he said, "That's my direct number to my office in Butte. I'm reachable day or night, twenty-four-seven." He extended a hand to his old friend.

Harrison graciously gave him a handshake. "Thanks, brother", he said, "we'll keep in touch."

With that, everyone filed out of the barn and dispersed to their respective vehicles. Hudson, Harrison, and Asher piled into Harrison's Dodge Charger. "So", Asher said, "An old case of ours from Chicago comes back to bite us in our asses and it seems that this whole Eden's Gate thing isn't over just yet."

Harrison smirked as he started his car's ignition. "That sounds about right, kiddo", he said, "If I were you, ladies, I'd fasten my seatbelts…and I'm not just talking about for right now."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Tricks, Treats, and Old Ghosts (Part 1)**

_Aubrey's Diner  
Henbane River  
October 31, 2018_

The night following the night of that very ill-omened and surprising CIA briefing was Halloween Night. As expected, the children of Hope County trick-or-treated with their friends and parents, and considering that a lot of the houses in the county were in rural locations, even the most rural of dirt roads were occupied by kids in costumes being ushered by their attentive parents. In Fall's End, the very popular annual All Hallows' Eve parade was in full swing.

Sheriff Harrison, Sergeant Asher, and the deputies of the Hope County Sheriff's Department, meanwhile, decided to meet for dinner at Aubrey's Diner before the start of the Halloween evening shift. This very pleasant greasy spoon in Hope County's Henbane River region had recently re-opened after being forcibly closed for some time while the Project Eden's Gate cult had the county under its thumb. It was owned and managed by Aubrey Dodd, the mother of Hope County Deputy Kevin Dodd.

Things were a bit different for the lawmen and lawwomen of Hope County on this Halloween Night. While Deputies Joey Hudson, Staci Pratt, Michael Whitehorse, and Kevin Dodd were present with the sheriff and sergeant for this pre-shift dinner, Deputies Adam Xander and Dakota Michaels were not. As the two were also trained firefighters and paramedics in addition to being law enforcement officers, they had both decided to volunteer as needed with Hope County's all-volunteer Fire Department and Emergency Medical Service. As such, they had both signed up to ride together in one of the ambulances and respond to emergency calls in the Holland Valley region for the evening.

The six who were present sat together in a spacious circular booth eating burgers, hot dogs, and the like. Harrison had just finished explaining to the others what had happened during the CIA briefing the previous evening.

"So, you're telling us that the Peggies are still out there?" Staci Pratt asked Sheriff Harrison, "Earl Whitehorse, the Feds, and the National Guard took down a crap-ton of them after the Martial Law order was carried out while you were in Japan."

Sheriff Harrison apprehensively nodded. "I know, Pratt", he replied, "but apparently the Seeds had followers outside the country. Those bombings overseas tell us that."

"So, what do we do to avoid a repeat of all the shit we went through before?" Pratt asked.

"The best thing any of us can do", Harrison said, "If any of us see any of the cult's vehicles in the area, we call it in to Dispatch and approach with caution. And by that, I mean, extreme caution. Be ready for anything, guys. Most of us sitting here in this booth have seen firsthand what those apocalyptic whackos are capable of."

"That's all well and good, Troy", Abigail Asher cut in, "but what do we do about the 'Baby Augustine' thing? It's very possible that whoever's still out there kissing the Seeds' asses could come looking for that little girl."

Harrison took a sip of his cola through a straw, taking a minute to think. "The kid would be around seven now", he said, "As you may remember, Abby, she was put up for adoption and was adopted by a family outside Illinois a few weeks later. That's all the social worker could tell me back then. Let's handle Patrol tonight, business as usual, okay? First thing tomorrow, we'll call CPD and see if there was any follow-up with the investigation after I left Chicago."

Everyone in the booth seemed to agree with that idea. "So, what's the patrol rotation tonight, Sheriff?" Michael Whitehorse asked.

"Well Mike", Harrison began, "Knowing that we'd be two men short tonight with Adam and Dakota volunteering with EMS, I asked the Montana Department of Corrections to send two pairs of their officers to watch over the jail for both shifts, so that's covered. Mike and Kevin, you guys have your old patrol route in Holland Valley tonight. Hudson and Pratt, you're paired back up. I'm going to need you guys to watch over things at the parade in Fall's End."

Joey Hudson and Staci Pratt got up from the booth and high-fived each other before heading out the door. "I take it that leaves you and I to work the Henbane River beat tonight, Sheriff?" Asher asked.

Harrison gave his friend a charismatic smile. "See?" he said, "That's why you and I have stayed such good friends for twenty years, Abby. You can pretty much read my damn mind by now, girl."

Asher chuckled. "If I'm driving", she said, "I'm bringing my Miranda Lambert CD with me in the cruiser."

Harrison gave her a fake and overdramatic sigh in response, rolling his eyes. "Fine", he said, "but the next time we pair up, I'm driving and we're bumping Run the Jewels on the stereo."

"Said the only sheriff in history who's a true hip-hop fan", Asher replied with a smirk.

Harrison and Asher were just getting up from the booth when they were surprised to see a brown-haired young girl of around seven, dressed in a generically cute pink princess costume, come up to their booth.

"Well hello there, Your Highness", Asher said, "You look very pretty tonight, cutie."

The little girl gave a delightful smile to the sergeant. Kevin Dodd then got up from his seat and went over to the little girl, putting his arm around her shoulder. "Sheriff, Sarge", he said, "I'd like you to meet my little sister, Amelia." He motioned to Harrison and Asher. "Amelia, honey", he continued, "This is Sheriff Harrison and Sergeant Asher."

"Hi", Amelia said with a sweetly innocent tone.

Asher knelt down and shook the little girl's hand like a lady. "It's nice to meet you, Amelia", she said, "you can call me 'Abby' if you want, okay?"

Amelia giggled. "Okay Abby", she said before handing a slip of paper to her brother. "Mommy wanted me to bring you guys this", she said to Kevin.

Dodd unfolded the slip and chuckled. "It's our check", he said, smiling. "I've got it. See you guys later, okay?"

Harrison nodded to Dodd and Whitehorse. "Thanks Kevin", he said, "Be safe and we'll check in with you guys on the radio later."

As if by the power of suggestion, Harrison's radio crackled to life.

"Hope County Alpha-One and Hope County Four-Two-Six", the voice of nightshift dispatcher Evan Adams was heard through the radio, "Please respond."

Sheriff Harrison keyed his portable radio mic as he and Asher headed out the door and got into their patrol vehicle. "Hope County Alpha-One to Dispatch", he said into the radio, "I copy you, Evan."

"Ten-four Sheriff", Evan responded, "Please respond to the abandoned Tanami Residence on that island just off Drubman Marina. Adelaide Drubman just called in saying she rented out one of her motorboats to three teens, one white male, two white females. She says she saw them head that way and thinks they're possibly trying to trespass onto the island, over."

"Copy that, Evan", Harrison said, "The Sergeant and I are responding Code Two from Aubrey's Diner, over."

_Drubman Marina  
Henbane River_

Asher and Harrison rolled up to Drubman Marina to find Adelaide Drubman waiting for them. As Hope County's resident real estate agent extraordinaire, marina owner, accomplished helicopter pilot, and unapologetic firearm enthusiast, Adelaide was a real jack-of-all-trades. She was another one of the many Hope County locals who aided Sheriff Harrison in fighting the cult. She stood with her imposingly tall stature and overly tanned skin, dressed in a pink and white polka-dotted tube top with a purplish-colored kerchief tied around her head, well-worn blue jeans, and cowboy boots.

"Hey there, Sheriff!" Adelaide greeted with a smile as Harrison and Asher emerged from their patrol car.

"Evening, Adelaide", Harrison replied, "Sorry about the circumstances, but it's still good to see you, honey. Have you met Sergeant Abby Asher?" he motioned to the sergeant.

Adelaide extended a hand to Asher. "I don't think we've formally met, no", she said, "It's a pleasure, Sarge."

Asher chuckled and reciprocated the gesture with a firm handshake. "The pleasure is all mine, Adelaide. So, our dispatcher tells us you think some kids might be trespassing?"

Adelaide motioned to her dock. "It looks that way", she began to explain, "You see, I rented a dinghy to these three kids, they looked to be about fifteen years old or so. One of the boys paid for the rental and gas with a Mastercard. I watched them take off in the direction of that private island where the old Tanami place is." She pointed in the direction of the island.

"And if memory serves", Harrison said, "That place has been abandoned for years ever since Mister Tanami passed away, is that right?"

Adelaide nodded. "Yep", she said, "Bob Tanami didn't have any next of kin to speak of, so to the best of my knowledge, no one ever bought it after he died. The place just sits there all decrepit and abandoned on that island out there."

"I see", Asher said, "How long ago did you see these kids take off?"

Adelaide glanced at her watch. "Almost fifteen minutes ago", she said.

Harrison spied an unused dinghy sitting beside one of the boat launches. "I have an idea", he said as he turned back to Adelaide and produced his wallet from his pocket. "How much is it to rent one of those dinghies for…let's say an hour?"

Adelaide smiled as she sensed his intentions. "That one there has a full tank", she said, "So no need to chip in for fuel. In that case, you'd owe me about forty bucks."

Harrison nodded and presented Adelaide with two twenty-dollar bills before turning to Asher. "Abby", he said, "do me a favor and get that Mastercard receipt from Adelaide's office, then grab the shotgun and bullhorn from the back of our car, please. I'm going to get the dinghy ready."

Asher shot him a puzzled look. "Are you sure we should be getting all tactical on a bunch of teenage kids who're probably just smoking weed and getting their freak on?" she asked.

Harrison grinned. "Who said anything about being tactical?" he replied, "I just want to teach these kids a lesson and scare the shit out of them. It is Halloween, after all, right?"

The ride to so-called "Tanami Island" from the direction of the Drubman Marina boat launch took about seven minutes in the motorized dinghy. Harrison piloted the boat while Asher held the shotgun up with one hand, and a bullhorn sat beside her just beneath the bench seat shared by her and Harrison. As they neared the shore of the derelict island, Harrison made sure to slow down in order to reduce the sound of the motor. He and Asher noted the presence of another dinghy docked on the shore that looked almost identical to the one they used. They docked their dinghy next to the other one and Asher promptly but stealthily hopped out of the boat, still holding the shotgun, and grabbed the bullhorn.

"That boat rental was charged to a Mastercard in the name of Ryan McCoy", Asher whispered to Harrison as she handed him the bullhorn, "Wait…McCoy…why does that name sound so familiar?"

Harrison sighed with realization. "That must be Mayor McCoy's kid", he replied with a whisper, "I hope he's not one of those entitled 'do-you-know-who-I-am' shitheads."

Asher scoffed quietly. "Yeah", she whispered, "that's all we need, right?"

The two of them crept quietly up the bank of the shore and snuck around to the left side of the island. Looking across, they noticed the abandoned and condemned wooden A-frame house, the former residence of the late Bob Tanami, and saw three darkened silhouettes on the opposite shore adjacent to the house. Each taking turns looking at them through Harrison's binoculars, Harrison and Asher determined they were undressing.

Harrison gave his Sergeant a knowing look and subsequent sly grin, and Asher gave an equally cunning grin and nodded in response. Harrison pressed down on the trigger button of the bullhorn and Asher rose to a tactical upright standing stance, pointing the shotgun outward.

"This is the Hope County Sheriff's Department!" Harrison shouted in a commanding tone, his voice even more amplified by the bullhorn, "You are trespassing on private property! Stand up and keep your hands in plain view!" The Sheriff rose to a stand as well, still holding the bullhorn in one hand.

The three startled kids immediately grabbed for whatever clothing they had just barely tossed aside. The young boy, clothed only in orange swim trunks, complied with the Sheriff's command, keeping his hands in the air. "Sheriff Harrison, right?" he asked.

Harrison lowered the bullhorn and stepped closer to the young man while Asher moved around him to secure his two barely-clad female companions. "You obviously know my name", he said, "Why don't you tell me yours, pal, and if you have any ID with you, I'd like to see it."

"I'm Ryan McCoy", the boy said as he produced his wallet from the pocket of his swim trunks and tossed it at Harrison's feet, "My father is Steven McCoy, the new Hope County Mayor."

Harrison nodded as he examined Ryan's Montana driver's license and boating license. "So we figured, Mister McCoy", he replied, "But I'm going to keep it very real with you tonight, okay? Whatever strings or connections your father has aren't going to absolve you or these ladies of the fact that you guys are trespassing on private property."

Ryan shrugged his shoulders. "I don't expect them to, sir", Ryan said, "But would you guys please just give us a ticket? I can't imagine we'd be spending a night in Hope County Jail just for going to some crappy old island for a night just to hang out on Halloween."

Harrison scoffed, annoyed by the boy's arrogance that he had chosen to mask with tentative respect. "We'll see, okay?" he said, "I'm going to get on the radio and run your ID and boating license. If any warrants pop up in your name, the jig is up and there'll be nothing we can do but run you guys in. Understand?"

Ryan nodded and Harrison walked off to a corner to contact Dispatch.

Asher, meanwhile, was busy interviewing the two girls Ryan had brought with them. She started with a very tanned athletic-looking blonde.

"What's your name, honey?" Asher asked.

"Jessica Laurel", the girl replied while pulling her t-shirt back over her head, "I'm a student at Hope County Unified School in Holland Valley. I'm sixteen."

Asher noted Jessica's information in her memo book. "Okay Jessica", she said, "I'm Sergeant Asher. I'm sorry for the circumstances, but it's nice to meet you all the same."

Jessica nodded. "You too", she said meekly.

Just then, Harrison walked over and stood beside Asher, whispering in her ear. "The boy's clear Sarge", he said, "No wants, no warrants."

Asher nodded before turning to the other young lady. "What's your name, sweetie?" she asked.

At first, the second young lady just stared at Asher with a coldly blank look on her face. "I'm sorry", she finally said in a hoarse tenor, "It's too late."

A perplexed Asher didn't know how to respond at first. "Too late for what?" she asked. The young lady continued to stare at her blankly before repeating "It's too late."

Harrison then became frustrated and stepped closer to the girl, giving her a very stern look. "The Sergeant asked you a question, young lady", he said in an equally strict tone and nearly raising his voice, "Too late for what?!"

Just then, both Harrison and Asher noticed a very distinctive tattoo just barely evident above the girl's bathing suit bottoms. It was the symbol of the Project Eden's Gate cult.

It suddenly felt as if Harrison and Asher could do nothing but look at each other, stunned and confused.

_Redd's Farm Supply  
Holland Valley_

While Sheriff Harrison and Sergeant Asher were busy dealing with the very unexpected eeriness on Tanami Island, Deputies Kevin Dodd and Michael Whitehorse were in their cruiser patrolling the Holland Valley region on the opposite end of Hope County. They were just about to pass by Redd's Farm Supply, a large warehouse supply store accommodating the local farmers and gardeners, when they happened to notice a very unique looking white pickup truck stopped right near the store's driveway.

"That looks like one of the trucks that the sheriff warned us about earlier", Whitehorse said while behind the wheel. He slowed the vehicle to a smooth stop and put it in park.

Dodd nodded in agreement. "I'll run it", he said before making a mental note of the truck's license plate number. He grabbed his portable radio off his uniform lapel and keyed the mic. "Hope County Seven-One-Seven to Dispatch", he said, "Please respond."

Almost immediately, dispatcher Evan Adams was heard over the radio. "Hope County Dispatch here", he replied, "We copy you, Seven-One-Seven, over."

Dodd keyed his mic again. "Hey Evan", he said, "We're holding down a possibly suspicious vehicle outside Redd's Farm Supply in Holland Valley. Can you please run a Montana plate number four-one-three-Alpha-Frank-Kilo, over?"

"Ten-four, Seven-One-Seven", Evan replied through the radio, "Stand by."

While they waited for Evan to run the plate through the necessary databases, Michael Whitehorse noticed the driver of the truck start to fidget.

"Something doesn't feel right, Kev", Whitehorse said, "It looks like this dude's got something to hide."

Evan Adams soon came back over the radio. "Dispatch to Hope County Seven-One-Seven", he said, "Please respond."

Dodd keyed his radio mic. "Hope County Seven-One-Seven", he said, "I copy. Go ahead."

"Seven-One-Seven", Evan replied, "Be advised. The plate number in question matches a vehicle mentioned in an FBI alert relating to the Eden's Gate case. Approach with caution, over."

Dodd and Whitehorse quickly exchanged looks before Dodd responded. "Copy that Dispatch", he said into the radio, "Notify the sheriff and the Highway Patrol. We're going to need some backup out here."

No sooner did the deputies exit their vehicle did they see the driver's side door of the pickup abruptly swing open.

"Sheriff's Office!", Dodd shouted, "Close your d…"

But Deputy Kevin Dodd wasn't able to finish his sentence. In an instant, he and Whitehorse were met with rapid gunfire from an assault rifle. The two deputies scrambled for cover behind the open doors of their cruiser. Glass rained down on the two of them as both their windows shattered upon impact with rifle fire.

Dodd peeked underneath the car and noticed his partner's feet were visible on the other side. "MIKE?!" He shouted over to him, "ARE YOU OKAY?!"

Just then, he saw Whitehorse's feet suddenly land upward with a thud, having obviously hit the ground.

"MIKE!" He again hollered.

_[A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUN! And the screen cuts to black! TO BE CONTINUED! How's that for a cliffhanger?] _


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Old Demons Tend to Linger (Part 2)**

_Redd's Farm Supply  
Holland Valley  
October 31, 2018_

"MIKE!" Deputy Kevin Dodd continued to shout as the seemingly endless eruption of assault rifle fire continued to rain down on him and his partner, Deputy Michael Whitehorse as they defensively took cover behind the doors of their patrol cruiser. Just seconds earlier, Whitehorse inexplicably hit the ground and now seemed to be laying on his back, or so Dodd thought by way of the obstructed view he had of his partner via the underside of the vehicle. The swift gunfire finally came to a standstill, giving Dodd the chance to return fire with his Glock .17 service weapon. He fired around eight rounds in quick succession in the direction of the white pickup truck's driver side as he quickly hustled around to the driver's side of the cruiser.

Deputy Whitehorse was laying face up on the ground around a multitude of broken glass pieces that had once been the cruiser's driver's side window, now an openly broken hole with just a few jaggedly sharp pieces of glass in its place. The driver's side door, subsequently, was riddled with what seemed like hundreds of bullet holes. The shooter's white pickup truck suddenly accelerated and sped of with a loud screech as it peeled away.

"Mike?" Dodd repeated twice more while putting two fingers on his partner's neck to check his pulse. As he did so, he momentarily looked over was shocked to see two bullet holes on the left side of Whitehorse's chest just beneath where his badge was pinned to the lapel of his uniform shirt. "Holy shit! Mike!" a frightened Dodd shouted, "Goddamn it, Mike! Talk to me, bud!"

With that, Michael Whitehorse gave out a groan of pain as his eyes fluttered open. "K—Kevin…" he hoarsely mustered as his eyes seemed to open more.

Although still very scared at the situation, Dodd smiled at his partner's response. "Yeah, buddy", he said, "I'm here. Try not to move, Mike, you've been hit, okay?"

Dodd instinctively tore open Whitehorse's uniform shirt to examine his wounds. He was equally astonished and reassured to find that two of the assault rifle bullets had actually struck the bulletproof vest he had been wearing without actually penetrating into his body.

"How bad is it?" Whitehorse asked before groaning once again.

With that, Dodd gave Whitehorse a very relieved smile. "The Kevlar caught 'em", he said, "The Kevlar caught 'em, brother, they didn't go all the way through. You're going to be okay, just stay here. I'm going to radio for help."

Although in pain, Whitehorse managed to get out a semi-happy chuckle as he complied with Dodd's request, not moving an inch as he rested his head back on the ground.

Dodd, meanwhile, grabbed his portable radio and pressed down on the microphone's transmission button for dear life. "Hope County Seven-One-Seven to Dispatch", he said into the radio, "I need a clear channel immediately for an emergency transmission!"

All other verbal traffic on the radio went stone silent just before the voice of nightshift dispatcher Evan Adams responded. "Dispatch to Seven-One-Seven", he replied, "Be advised, the Hope County channel is now clear for emergency traffic only. Go ahead with the information."

Dodd exhaled deeply before again pressing the button to respond. "Dispatch! I have a Code Ten-Thirteen!" he responded, "Shots fired at deputies outside Redd's Farm Supply in Holland Valley. One deputy is down and wounded. Suspect is driving a white pickup truck going eastbound toward the Henbane River Bridge, Montana plate number four-one-three-Alpha-Frank-Kilo, over!"

"Copy that, Seven-One-Seven", Adams replied through the radio, "Are you okay? Are you the one hurt? Over."

"Negative, Dispatch", Dodd said into the radio, "I'm fine, but Deputy Whitehorse has been shot. Notify all available units and send me an ambulance, now!"

There was a short but significant pause before Evan gave a response. "Copy that", he finally replied with a very noticeable quiver in his voice, "Backup and EMS are on the way. Hang in there, guys, over."

_Tanami Residence  
Henbane River_

By now, U.S. Park Rangers from the adjoining Whitetail Mountains region of Hope County had come to so-called "Tanami Island" by boat to assist Sheriff Harrison and Sergeant Asher with their trespassing call. Fearing that one of the teenage girls they had detained was somehow associated with the Project Eden's Gate cult, Harrison had contacted the Park Ranger dispatch station by phone as he was apprehensive about putting it out over the radio for fear of causing panic. Two rangers had handcuffed the suspicious teen and were walking her onto their boat to be taken to the jail dock and booked.

"So, you guys want this kid in protective custody?" Park Ranger John Williams asked Harrison.

Harrison nodded. "Yes please", he replied, "We have Corrections Officers waiting at the dock near the jail. Their orders are to put her in the Infirmary for now so she can't interact with the other inmates. That's just not a chance any of us are willing to take at this point."

Just then, both Harrison and Asher were startled by the loud emergency tone sounding over their radios. The seemingly resonant noise was followed by Evan Adams' voice.

"Hope County Dispatch to all available units", Evan said through the radio, "Emergency transmission! Hope County Seven-One-Seven has reported a Ten-Thirteen at Redd's Farm Supply in Holland Valley. We have shots fired at deputies and a deputy is down! Repeat, Deputy Down! Backup and paramedics have been notified and are on the way!"

Nothing more had to be said as Harrison and Asher sprinted back toward their rented dinghy and the two of them simultaneously jumped into the small boat and Harrison gunned the motor back toward the marina. As Harrison piloted the boat as fast as he could, Asher keyed her radio.

"Hope County Four-Two-Six to Dispatch", she said into the radio, "Evan, it's Abby. Do you copy?"

"Ten-Four Sergeant", Evan responded through the radio, "Go ahead."

"Which one of our men is down, over?" She asked.

She could hear a very audible sigh through the radio before Evan replied. "It's Mike Whitehorse, Sarge, he's been shot. But Dodd said he's awake and trying to talk to him. We have an ambulance dispatched. The nearest one's coming from the parade in Fall's End."

Asher took a moment to catch her breath before replying, though tears were now streaming down her face. "Ten-Four, Evan", she said into the radio, "Four-Two-Six and Alpha One are in route to the scene from Henbane River, we're about twenty minutes out."

"Stand by, Sarge", Evan said before there was a momentary bit of silence over the radio before he finally came back on the air. "Sheriff", he said, "do you copy?"

With that, Harrison keyed his radio with his free hand while still piloting the dinghy. "Ten-Four, Evan", he said into the radio, "I'm here, over."

"Sir", Evan replied, "I have Adelaide Drubman trying to reach you on the civilian CB frequency, over."

"Ten-Four", Harrison replied into the radio, "Patch her in, please, over."

There was a small beep before Adelaide's voice was heard. "Hey Sheriff", she said, "I overheard on the scanner about your boys. I have an Enstrom two-eighty Shark helicopter in my warehouse here. I'd be happy to fly you two over to Holland Valley when you get back. It'll cut your travel time in half, over."

Harrison and Asher looked at each other and both nodded in agreement before the sheriff once again keyed his radio. "That'd be great, Adelaide", Harrison said into the radio, "Get it ready as quickly as you can. Abby and I will be there in a few. Thanks so much, over."

"Not a problem, honey", Adelaide replied through the radio, "If these Peggie pricks are still slinking around our county, I'd do anything to help you guys fight them again, over."

Harrison chuckled, comforted by the sentiment. "Ten-Four, Adelaide", he said into the radio, "Harrison out."

_Redd's Farm Supply  
Holland Valley  
13 Minutes Later_

Adelaide Drubman was able to curtail a significant amount of travel time for Harrison and Asher, landing the helicopter in a vacant farm field across the road from the shooting scene at Redd's Farm Supply. As they disembarked from the helicopter, the two were met with the almost overwhelming sight of various police and emergency vehicles that seemed to have come from all over to assist with the "Deputy Down" call.

Sergeant Asher made a beeline for Dodd and Whitehorse's bullet-riddled patrol car. She immediately took note of the seemingly hundreds of bullet holes before zeroing in on the open driver's side door, underneath which was Deputy Whitehorse's uniform shirt and bulletproof vest which had both been removed by the paramedics during their life-saving efforts. The sergeant immediately got the attention of a female Montana Highway Patrol trooper who was helping secure the scene.

"Where are the deputies who called this in?" she asked anxiously.

The young-looking trooper came over to Asher, giving her the once over. "Before I tell you that, ma'am", she said, "I'd appreciate it if you identified yourself, please."

Asher pointed to the badge and name pin on her uniform shirt. "Sergeant Abigail Asher", she said, "I'm the Corrections Supervisor for the Hope County Sheriff's Department. The deputies involved in whatever went on here tonight are two of my men."

The trooper sighed. "Deputy Dodd called out an emergency transmission indicating 'Shots Fired' and that there was a deputy shot and injured at this location", she began to explain, "Several units and an ambulance responded. We found Dodd assisting Deputy Whitehorse who had apparently been struck by two bullets in his bulletproof vest."

"Which hospital was Whitehorse taken to?" Asher asked.

"The paramedics took him to the Hope County Clinic to be examined", the trooper replied, "Dodd is there with him now. He rode in the ambulance. As of approximately nine minutes ago, he's awake, talking and stable for the moment."

Asher let out a sigh of great relief and swallowed back the tears she knew would have come had the trooper delivered worse news. "Okay", she said with a nod.

Just then, Sheriff Harrison walked up next to Asher. "Mike's going to be okay", Asher told her boss and longtime friend, "Dodd rode with him to the clinic and apparently he's awake and talking."

Harrison gave a reassured nod before extending a hand to the female trooper. "I'm Sheriff Troy Harrison", he said, "I apologize for the terrible circumstances, but it's still nice to meet you, Trooper…"

The female trooper shook Harrison's hand firmly. "Jenson", she said, "Anna Jenson, and the pleasure's all mine, Sheriff."

"Who's going to be running the investigation into what went on here tonight?" Harrison asked.

Trooper Anna Jenson turned and pointed to a tall white man who looked to be in his late forties to early fifties with salt and pepper hair wearing a long beige-colored trench coat and making notes in a memo book. "That's Noah Deveraux", she explained, "He's the Major Case Section Chief of the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation."

"I see", Harrison replied before sighing deeply. "Here's the plan", he said before turning to Asher, "Abby, I want you to catch a ride to the clinic and check on Mike and Kevin. I also want you to collect their firearms and tell them that they're both relieved of duty for the next three days. That's standard operating procedure in officer-involved shootings, and it's not negotiable."

Asher nodded before turning to Trooper Jenson. "Would you mind giving me a lift up there?" she asked.

"Not a problem ma'am", Jenson replied, "I'll go get my vehicle. Is there anything else you guys might need, Sheriff?"

"Actually Trooper", he replied, "There is. Could you contact your Captain and see if they can detail one of your Highway Patrol units to our county for the next three days? With two of our guys on leave and a cop shooter on the loose, we'll need all the help we can get."

"Consider it done", Jenson said, "I'll call Captain White as soon as I drop Sergeant Asher off."

Harrison shook the supportive trooper's hand once again. "Thanks Jenson", he said, "you've been a great help."

As Jenson and Asher headed to Jenson's patrol car, Harrison made his way over to the tall man in the trench coat.

"Chief Deveraux?" Harrison inquired.

Chief Noah Deveraux looked up from his memo book and turned to address the sheriff. "Yes", Deveraux replied with a very apparent French-Cajun accent in his voice, "You must be Sheriff Harrison." He put his memo book in the breast pocket of his coat and then extended the same hand to Harrison.

Harrison shook the man's hand firmly. "Yes sir", he said, "Troy Harrison. I apologize for the bad circumstances, but even so, it's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Deveraux said, "I'd like to make it clear to you, Sheriff, that my investigation into this incident is in no way an attempt to denigrate or dig up dirt on you or your department. This is just a formality that has to be followed in accordance with the law."

Harrison nodded. "I've been in law enforcement for almost twenty years, Chief", he replied, "I'm well aware of what needs to be done."

Deveraux retrieved his memo book and pen from his pocket and flipped it back open. "Okay then", he said, "What can you tell me about what went on here tonight?"

"Deputies Kevin Dodd and Michael Whitehorse were out on patrol and happened upon a suspicious-looking white pickup truck out here", Harrison began to explain, "They radioed the plate into our dispatcher, who subsequently ran the plate number through our database. The dispatcher radioed back that the plate number in question matched a set of numbers that were red-flagged in an FBI bulletin regarding the Project Eden's Gate cult case."

Deveraux flipped through his memo book for a moment. "...and when your deputies went to approach the vehicle and its driver, the driver's side door came open and they were fired upon by an armed suspect with an assault rifle", he said, "Deputy Whitehorse was injured, correct?"

"Regrettably", Harrison replied, "Yes. From what Trooper Jenson told my sergeant and I when we got here, two of the assault rifle bullets struck his bulletproof vest. He was transported to the Hope County Clinic by ambulance and he's apparently in stable condition."

Deveraux sighed. "Thank goodness", he said, "And for the record, the two volunteer paramedics who transported Whitehorse to the clinic are actually two of your deputies as well, right?"

"Yes sir", Harrison replied, "Adam Xander and Dakota Michaels. In addition to being cops, they are also trained firemen and paramedics and have been for a while now. They asked for tonight off to volunteer with the ambulance service. I guess you can call it a 'happy accident'."

Deveraux gave the sheriff a brief smile. "No kidding", he said, "I'm going to need formal statements from the two of them and obviously from Dodd and Whitehorse, too. But I'm willing to put those off until the lab comes back with the ballistics results from both of their weapons."

Harrison nodded. "I appreciate that, Chief", he said, "Sergeant Asher will be collecting them shortly. I'll have her deliver them to you personally as soon as she can."

Deveraux extended a hand to the sheriff once again. "Then I guess that wraps it up for now, Sheriff", he said, "We'll be in touch."

Harrison reciprocated the Chief's handshake. "Thank you, Chief."

_Hope County Clinic  
Holland Valley_

Trooper Anna Jenson dropped Sergeant Asher off at the Hope County Clinic, waiting patiently while she went inside. The sergeant was greeted by Dr. Connie Harris, Hope County's only general physician, obstetrician, and midwife, as soon as she came through the door. Dr. Harris was a petite white woman in her sixties with curly gray hair, wearing the proverbial doctor's lab coat and stethoscope.

"Hello Sergeant", Dr. Harris said.

"Evening, Doc", Asher said, "How's Whitehorse doing?"

"He's rather lucky considering he was just shot twice with an assault rifle", Dr. Harris replied, "Three of his ribs are broken on the right side and his right lung is bruised, more than likely from when the two bullets made impact with his vest. He's going to need to rest up for a few days, but his prognosis is very good."

With that, Asher gave a very big sigh of relief before continuing inside the clinic. In the exam room, she found Deputy Michael Whitehorse laying face up on the exam table. His ribs were secured by a swath to brace and protect them, and it was apparently somewhat difficult for the young deputy to breathe with the device on. Deputy Kevin Dodd sat on the stool across from him.

"Hey fellas", Asher said. She then leaned down to Whitehorse. "How you doing, Mike?" she asked softly

Whitehorse turned as best he could to acknowledge Asher. "I'm…I'm still alive, Sarge", he said with a very pained, hoarse tone of voice, "but my chest hurts like a bastard."

Asher smiled and chuckled at that; still glad her deputy had a sense of humor. "Sorry about that, buddy", she said, "I'm just glad you're okay."

Kevin Dodd stood up from the stool on which he sat. "Have the found the suspect yet, Sarge?" he asked anxiously.

Asher regrettably shook her head. "Not yet, Kevin", she said, "And I don't mean to add insult to injury here, gentlemen, but I'm actually here to inform you that you're both going to be relieved of duty for the next three days, effective immediately. I'm also going to need to collect your guns. It's the Sheriff's orders, guys, I'm sorry."

Dodd sighed and handed over his Glock .17 handgun. "Standard procedure because of the shooting, right?" he asked. He then went over to the pile of clothing that Dr. Harris had cut off Whitehorse during her lifesaving efforts, retrieving his holster and Smith and Wesson .45 caliber sidearm, handing them over to their Sergeant.

"Yes", Asher said, "There's a guy from the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation out at the scene now. He's going to want to run these through the lab for ballistics analysis in order to corroborate your version of events. I wouldn't sweat it though."

"My dad is on his way here now", Whitehorse said, "I'm going to go back to the Reservation with him for a few days and rest up at the hospital there."

Asher nodded. "That sounds like a great idea, Mike", she said, "It'll be good for you guys to reconnect while you're at it."

"What are you guys going to do while we're away?" Dodd asked.

"There's a Highway Patrol trooper waiting outside right now", Asher replied, "She's on her cell phone trying to have a Highway Patrol unit detailed to back us up so we won't be short-handed. Go on home, Kev, we've got this."

Dodd hugged Asher and bent down to shake Whitehorse's hand before heading out the door. Just then, Asher's phone rang.

"Asher", she answered.

"Hey Abby", Harrison replied from the other end of the phone, "It's Troy. I think I'm going to take tomorrow off. Do you mind holding down the fort for the day?"

"Sure", she replied, "No problem. Anything you need done?"

"Yeah", Harrison said, "I'd like you to send a set of fingerprints from that strange girl we detained in Henbane tonight to my friend Denny Donovan at the FBI. Have him run them through the national missing children's database. I have a hunch about her."

"Got it", Asher replied, "Anything else?"

"Call Chicago PD and get the full file on the 'Baby Augustine' case from seven years ago", Harrison said, "We need to go over it with a fine-toothed comb."

"I'm not too excited to be calling CPD given what a lot of them have come to think of me", Asher said, "but I'll do what I can. I'm on the way back to the scene with the boys' guns. Whitehorse wanted me to tell you he'll be going to the Reservation with his dad for a few days to recover."

"Good", Harrison said, "Thanks Abby. I'll see you in a bit, okay?"

"No problem, boss", she said. With that, Asher hung up her phone and headed back out with Trooper Jenson.


	9. Chapter 9

_[Author's Note: This chapter features references, titles, and lyrics by the late, great Amy Winehouse. All these things are, therefore, the official property of Island Records, and no infringement is intended by my using them in this chapter. I'd also like to dedicate this chapter to the memory of the amazing and talented Amy Jade Winehouse (1983-2011). Rest in peace, sweetheart, you are so very missed!]_

**Chapter 9: He Can Only Hold Her**

_Residence of Troy Harrison  
Fall's End, Holland Valley  
November 1, 2018  
10:00 AM_

Sheriff Troy Harrison was suddenly awoken by loud knocks on his front door. He promptly sat up on his living room couch, clad only in a black Amy Winehouse t-shirt, blue boxer shorts, and socks. He quickly pulled on the pair of blue jeans he had left on the floor the night prior, and as he made his way to the front door, three more equally loud knocks were heard.

"I'm coming!" Harrison said in a raised voice. He opened the door to find Chief Noah Deveraux standing on his doorstep, an official looking folder in his hand.

"Good morning Sheriff!" Deveraux said, his French-Cajun accent sounding very chipper.

Harrison let out a very groggy groan. "Chief", he said as he opened the door wider allowing him to come in, "I take it since you couldn't wait to see me at my office tomorrow, whatever that is in your hand is quite important."

Noah Deveraux made his way further into the sheriff's home as Harrison shut the front door behind him. The Major Case Section Chief handed Harrison the folder. "I spoke to Dodd, Xander, Michaels, and Asher earlier this morning", he said, "I also spoke to Deputy Whitehorse by phone. He's apparently staying at the hospital on the Blackfeet Reservation for the time being."

Harrison nodded. "I was aware of that", he replied, "Mike's father is my predecessor, our old Sheriff, Earl Whitehorse. Earl insisted that Mike stay there for a bit while his broken ribs and bruised lung heal."

"I see", Deveraux said, "My point is that everything they gave me in their statements is backed up by what our crime lab people were able to determine by the physical evidence from the scene of the shooting. The ballistics analysis of the deputies' guns is still pending, but I wouldn't be worried."

With that, a now more reassured Harrison looked over the report inside the folder that Deveraux had given him. "'Despite the pending forensic analysis of the two deputies' firearms'", Harrison read out loud as he quoted the summary of Deveraux's report, "'this investigator has determined that no unlawful wrongdoing occurred, neither on the part of Deputy Kevin Dodd Junior nor Deputy Michael Whitehorse, during the incident in question and therefore recommends full reinstatement and return to full duty for both of them.'" He looked up from the report and smiled. "Thank you, Chief", he said, "the boys will be pleased."

Deveraux sat down on Harrison's couch. "Now that we've got that out of the way", he said, "Could I trouble you for a Bourbon?"

Harrison smirked and chuckled as he placed Deveraux's folder on the coffee table and crossed to his open kitchen. "One", he said, "It's a little early in the morning to start drinking, and two, I don't keep Bourbon. I gave up alcohol two years ago thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous. The best I can promise you is a pot of coffee."

Deveraux sighed. "Sorry Sheriff", he said, "I had no idea. Yes, coffee sounds good. Milk and two sugars if you would, please."

Harrison poured water into his coffee pot and spooned French Roast coffee into a fresh filter. "Call me 'Troy' please", he said, "It's my first day off since I took office and it's not like I'm in uniform or anything." He looked at Deveraux through the open pass-through window that looked into his living room.

Sensing where Harrison was, Deveraux turned his head to face him. "Okay Troy", he replied, "In that case, then, you can call me 'Noah'."

Harrison nodded as he crossed to his coffee pot and began pouring the coffee into two mugs. "So, Noah", he said, "How does a cop who's very obviously from somewhere down South end up being Montana's Chief of the Major Case Section?"

Deveraux smirked. "I guess my accent does make it rather obvious", he began to explain, "We're originally from New Orleans. I was a patrol cop with NOPD until we were displaced by Hurricane Katrina in Two-Thousand-Five."

"Who do you mean when you say 'we'?" Harrison asked.

Deveraux sighed. "My daddy died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma a year before Katrina hit", "I moved back home to help take care of my mama and my baby sister. After the storm subsided, I resigned from NOPD and this really nice charity organization helped Mama and I find our way here to Montana. We've lived at our house in Helena ever since."

Harrison noted the recognizable hole in Deveraux's story. "Your sister didn't come here with you?" he asked.

Deveraux's eyes welled up with tears. "The truth is", he said, "Marcie Jean disappeared after the storm hit, but it wasn't because of the storm. She had found what we thought was a new church about a month before. We thought it would be good for her, that is, until we realized it wasn't just any church that she joined up with. All of a sudden, it was 'Joseph' this and 'Joseph' that."

With that, Harrison let out a deep sigh of realization and dropped his head. "Joseph Seed", he said, "Your sister joined Eden's Gate, didn't she?"

Deveraux nodded as he started to cry. "Marcie Jean was only sixteen years old", he said through more tears, "Those fuckers had no right to her, but by the time we realized what had actually happened, I lost track of her. I took the job here at DCI and realized all I could do was pray and hope for the best."

Harrison sat down on the couch and put a comforting hand on Deveraux's back. "I'm so sorry, Noah", he said.

"Thank you", Deveraux said, "And now that I've told you that, I have a request."

Harrison put the pieces together. "You want to help us take down what's left of the cult, don't you?" he inquired.

"It'd mean the world to me", Deveraux replied, "and I wouldn't have to leave my post at DCI to do it. Since my inquiry into the deputies' shooting is all but closed, I can ask the Attorney General to detail me and a few of my agents to Hope County and help you guys out. If you'll have us, that is."

Harrison nodded. "Make the call", he said, "Pending the AG's approval, welcome aboard, Chief." He extended a hand to Deveraux.

Deveraux shook the sheriff's hand firmly. "Thanks again, Sheriff." With that, he took out his cell phone and dialed the Attorney General's Office.

While Deveraux was busy making his call, Harrison set the Chief's coffee cup in front of him and was met with a grateful nod. He went back into the kitchen to give him some privacy, sitting at his small dining table and taking a moment to check his own cell phone. He noted a "Missed Call" and subsequent voicemail from Sergeant Asher from an hour earlier, which he promptly played back.

"Hey Troy it's Abby", he heard Asher's filtered voice begin the message, "Sorry to be leaving you this info over a stupid voicemail, but first off, I called Chicago and Detective Lenny Marks from District Thirty-Four is going to overnight the whole 'Baby Augustine' file out to us. All the written reports, scene photos, hospital reports, everything will be here by tomorrow morning. Second, I called your buddy Donovan at the FBI and asked him to run the Henbane girl's prints. As of an hour ago, he's still waiting for any matches, but he said he'll fax any results he gets to my office at the jail. Hit me back, thanks, bye."

With that, Harrison texted a thankful message to Asher acknowledging what she had informed him in the message. Deveraux soon came into the kitchen and sat down in the chair facing Harrison.

"It's all set", Deveraux happily told him, "two of my agents will be here by this evening."

Harrison nodded. "Bring them to our office when they arrive", he said, "I'll introduce you to the rest of my department, we'll put all our heads together, and figure out our next plan of attack against these Peggie dickheads."

A chance for Deveraux to reply was cut short by the sudden singing of the late Amy Winehouse. Sheriff Harrison had the chorus of Winehouse's infamous song "Back to Black" set as the general ringtone for his cell phone.

"Harrison", the sheriff punctually answered.

"Hey, boss", Asher replied from her end of the line, "It's Abby again. Agent Donovan got a match on the fingerprints from the girl we picked up over here in Henbane last night. She's apparently been missing from a small town in Texas for about a year."

"Got it", Harrison replied, "I'm coming in right away. I'm bringing a guy from the State Division of Criminal Investigation with me. He and his agents will be joining up with us to help out with the cult case."

"Okay", Asher said from her end of the line, "I'll let everybody know."

"Thanks Abby", Harrison replied, "Great work, kid."

"Thanks Troy", Asher said, "Your confidence in me to run things here today means a lot. See you in a bit."

_Hope County Jail & Sheriff's Office  
Henbane River_

Harrison and Deveraux made their way through the lobby of the Sheriff's Office and into the Dispatch Center, where they ran into nightshift dispatcher Evan Adams getting his messages and mail out of his interoffice mailbox. Evan Adams was a heavyset 21-year-old of medium height with short curly dark hair.

"Hi Sheriff!" Evan warmly greeted

"Well hey there, Evan" Harrison said, "Coming into work a little early, aren't you, bud?"

Evan chuckled. "I stayed later because of the Whitehorse shooting", he replied, "I figured Mom could use some help getting things back to normal."

Harrison nodded. "I appreciate that, bud", he said, "and you did an excellent job handling the radio during Mike's crisis."

"Thank you, sir", Evan said, "How is Deputy Whitehorse?"

"He's doing great", Harrison said, "he's taking a few days to rest up on the Blackfeet Reservation where he grew up. Earl's taking good care of him."

Evan sighed with relief. "That's good to hear", he said, "I'll see you later on tonight, Sheriff." He then gave a goodbye wave to his mother, dayshift dispatcher Betty Adams, who was now manning the main dispatch console, before heading out the side door.

"Good morning Sheriff", Betty Adams said as she turned further around in her wheeled office chair to face him, "I thought you were taking the day off."

"I got called in by Sergeant Asher", Harrison replied as he motioned to Deveraux. "Betty, this is Chief Noah Deveraux with Montana DCI", he said, "can you get him a jail pass, please? We have to go meet up with Abby in her office."

Betty nodded and handed Deveraux a numbered clip-on magnetic keycard with the words "ALL ACCESS" stamped on the front of it before handing him a clipboard. "Sign the log if you would please, Chief", she humbly requested.

Noah Deveraux complied with her request, signing his name and allotted pass number on the log before pinning the jail pass to the breast pocket of his jacket.

Harrison used his keycard to pass through the door which separated the Sheriff's Office from the back side of the Hope County Jail. He and Deveraux then crossed into the Communications Room, which also doubled as Sergeant Asher's office. Asher stood up from her desk as soon as she saw them come in.

"Sorry to have you come in on your day off, Troy", Asher said with a tone of regret in her voice, "I just didn't think this could wait." She handed the sheriff a large file folder with the FBI seal on the front.

"That's okay, Sarge", Harrison said as he opened the folder and started to read its contents, "Have you met Chief Deveraux?" he asked Asher.

Asher extended a hand to Deveraux. "In a manner of speaking", she said, "We spoke on the phone early this morning. It's nice to meet you in person, sir."

Deveraux warmly shook the Sergeant's hand. "You as well, ma'am", he said kindly, "your sheriff speaks highly of you."

Asher turned her attention to Harrison. "I thought the inquiry into Mike's shooting was closed", she said.

"It is", Harrison replied without looking up from reading the contents of the folder. "As it turns out", he continued, "Chief Deveraux here has what you would call a 'vested interest' in the Eden's Gate case. I've asked him to avail himself and the DCI to assist us, and he's agreed."

Asher nodded before changing the subject. "What do you think of what Donovan found out about our girl from Tanami Island?" she asked Harrison.

Harrison began reading the contents of the girl's background check out loud so Deveraux could hear. "Jessica Marie Wyley" he read, "seventeen years old. Born January tenth nineteen-eighty-nine in Fort Worth, Texas to James and Bonnie Wyley of the nearby city of Blue Mound, Texas. They apparently reported as a runaway to the Blue Mound Police Department last July and hasn't been seen since, according to this."

"How did she wind up here in little old Hope County, Montana?" Deveraux asked.

"I spoke to the Chief of Police in Blue Mound, Texas while you guys were on your way here", Asher chimed in, "He told me that witnesses saw her board a bus in Dallas the day after her parents reported her as a runaway, and it turned out that bus was headed for Billings, Montana."

With that, Deveraux cleverly put the pieces of Jessica Wyley's presumed story together. "So, your girl boards a bus in Dallas", he began, "Gets to Billings, and either hitchhikes here or meets up with someone from the cult who gives her a lift. How'd you guys come across her?"

"Last night", Harrison explained, "Just before Mike Whitehorse and Kevin Dodd were shot at, Abby and I responded to a trespassing call on an abandoned island just off Drubman Marina here in Henbane. We detained three teenage kids and singled out Jessica when I noticed she had an Eden's Gate tattoo on her lower back."

"All she kept saying to us over and over again was 'It's too late'", Asher added, "All the way until the park rangers came to help us take the kids in. Then, we got sidetracked when the shooting in Holland Valley went down and Mike was hit."

Harrison took a moment to think. "I think I should go into 'Profiler' mode and try and just do an in-depth interview with this girl", he said, "Try and coax information out of her without her even realizing that she's actually admitting anything."

Deveraux gave the sheriff a puzzled look. "And, if I may ask", he inquired, "what exactly is 'Profiler mode'?"

"I spent five out of my ten years at the FBI as a behavioral profiler working organized and serial crime cases around the country and sometimes even overseas", Harrison replied, "Before that, I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Forensic Psychology. Let's just say that these Eden's Gate shitheads haven't exactly been my first experience in dealing with whacko religious cults."

Asher motioned to the surveillance camera positioned over the door to the Communications Room. "We'll be watching you", she said, "And, as you know, there's an emergency call button in the Infirmary. It rings in here, so press it should you run into trouble."

Harrison nodded and went out the door, down the hall, and into the small Infirmary. Four of the small room's five beds were empty with the exception of the final one, which sat in the far corner of the room right near the unoccupied jail physician's office.

17-year-old Jessica Marie Wyley sat in a seemingly very awkward position on the bed, tightly hugging her knees and looking down at the footboard. The expression on her face seemed to be a blank, cold stare. This was very unlike the vivacious, energetic expressions average teenagers seemed to be able to show. She was clad only in a bland white and blue polka-dotted medical gown and tattered lime green wool socks.

Harrison grabbed a wheeled stool and moved it in front of Jessica's bed, sitting down and holding the case folder in his lap. He did his best to make eye contact with her, even though Jessica herself didn't seem too keen on reciprocating the gesture. "Hello", he said in a very kindly tone of voice, "My name is Troy Harrison. I'm the Sheriff here in Hope County, Montana. Could you tell me your name, please, dear?"

Jessica lifting her head and stretching her legs out in front of her were the first signs of animation she had shown since being taken into custody. "My…" She said in an uneasy and almost rasping tone in her voice, "My name is Delilah."

With that, Harrison sat there confused for a split second, but then it dawned on him the ploy that the cult must've conditioned the young girl to use when being questioned. "Delilah, huh?" he said, "Okay then, Delilah. How old are you?"

"Seventeen", Jessica replied, "I'm a junior at the new Hope County Unified School right here in Henbane River."

Harrison skimmed through the contents of the case folder. "That's interesting", he said, "Because I have a list of the most recent enrollments to Hope County Unified School right here in this folder. There's no 'Delilah' anywhere. You want to try that again, honey?"

Jessica tried to look away after catching the sheriff's knowing look. "No", she coldly replied, "My name is Delilah. I'm seventeen years old, and I'm a junior at the Hope County Unified School."

Hoping to crack the conditioning, Harrison took out a picture taken of Jessica before she had run away from home back in Texas. He took the opportunity to sit on the side of the bed and address the young girl more up close. "We know that's not your name, honey", Harrison said with a warm but very matter-of-fact tone, "Look at this picture, please. Just look, okay?"

Jessica finally took a decent look at her own picture, realizing who she actually was for the first time in a year. "Your name is Jessica Marie Wyley", Harrison continued very matter-of-factly, "You're seventeen years old, you're from Blue Mound, Texas, and you're the only daughter of James and Bonnie Wyley. Your dad rebuilds engines for big rig trucks and your mom is Blue Mound's town secretary. Do you remember?"

Jessica's eyes welled up with tears. "We used to fight a lot", she said with a quiver in her voice.

A relieved Harrison nodded. "Yes, I know, dear" he replied, "You had a really bad fight the day you ran away from home. But that doesn't mean that your parents haven't spent a year's worth of worried, sleepless nights wondering where the hell their baby girl went off to. Your mom calls the Blue Mound Police Department twice a week like clockwork, Jessica. My Sergeant spoke to the Police Chief there earlier today. He told her how much his heart broke having to tell your mom about the lack of leads they've had in finding you."

Jessica began to cry even more. "They're still looking for me?" she asked.

Harrison embraced the girl in a heartfelt hug. "Yes, Jessica", he replied, "Oh sweetheart, of course they are. They've never given up on you, honey."

Harrison eyed the surveillance camera positioned above the Infirmary door as he continued trying to comfort the young girl, knowing that Asher and Deveraux were watching. He made a sign with his free hand, pantomiming a telephone receiver. Viewing the surveillance feed from the Communications Room, Asher knew it was a silent request for her to call the Blue Mound Police down in Texas and update them.

A few minutes later, Harrison came back into the Communications Room as Asher was finishing up her telephone call with the Blue Mound Police. She graciously thanked and said goodbye to whomever was on the other end of the line before putting the receiver back on its cradle.

"That was Chief Walker from the Blue Mound PD down in Texas", Asher said, "He's going to call the Wyleys ASAP and get them on the first plane here."

Harrison nodded. "Good work Abby", he said, "I think I started to break through whatever conditioning the cult had her under, but she's going to need a ton of therapy to try and learn how to reestablish the emotional connection she had with her parents."

Asher sat back in the wheeled leather office chair behind her desk and looked to Noah Deveraux. "Speaking of connections", she said, "You mind filling me in on what exactly your interest is in the Eden's Gate case, Chief? I mean, I thought you were here just to do the state's inquiry into the Whitehorse and Dodd thing."

Noah Deveraux sat down on the wheeled stool in front of the Main Housing Unit's control board and sighed deeply, bowing his head with repentance. "Thirteen years ago," he began, "My baby sister, Marcie Jean, ran away from our home in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. She was sixteen then. I was with the New Orleans Police Department at the time, and because of all the commotion with the storm, they weren't able to do much as far as investigating what happened to her. I found out later she had apparently left on her own steam to join Project Eden's Gate. I left the NOPD after the storm subsided, my mama and I relocated to Montana, I took this job with Montana DCI, and I've been working behind the scenes to try and get a solid lead on Marcie Jean's whereabouts ever since."

"Noah has asked to help us out, Abby" Harrison added, "Two of his agents will be here later this evening to provide further assistance. Whatever they need from, they get. That's an order."

Asher nodded. "Yes sir", she said before turning back to Deveraux. "I'm so sorry, Chief", she said with a remorseful tone in her voice, "I had no idea. I'll make sure we can do whatever we can to help you."

Deveraux shook his head. "There's no need for apologies, Sergeant", he said reassuringly, "and thank you in advance for the help, ma'am."

Just then, Harrison's cell phone rang, and he saw Adam Xander's name on the caller ID. "Hey Adam!" he promptly answered.

"Hey Troy", Xander replied from his end of the line, "Dakota and I have eyes on the pickup truck involved Mike Whitehorse's shooting."

"Where?" Harrison anxiously asked.

"Horned Serpent Cave", he said.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: A Piece of Hell**

_Horned Serpent Cave  
Henbane River_

It took Sheriff Troy Harrison and Chief Noah Deveraux a significant amount of time to reach the summit entrance of Henbane River's ill-reputed Horned Serpent Cave, despite the fact that the sheriff's uniquely modified Dodge Charger was outfitted with off-road tires. This massively cavernous cave posed a very apparent and serious danger to those who dared to venture inside it, as the cave's entire interior had a hot spring running throughout.

However, unlike most hot springs, the water temperature inside Horned Serpent Cave constantly remained at a dangerously boiling 212 Degrees Fahrenheit. Several lost hikers, cave explorers, and amateur treasure hunters had all received some very severe and extensive burns to various limbs and extremities over the years. Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux slowly journeyed up the long, winding dirt road that lead up to the summit, passing several emergency vehicles along the way.

"Why do they call this place Horned Serpent Cave anyway?" Deveraux asked as he sat in Harrison's front seat.

"I don't know exactly why, Chief" Harrison replied as he slowly drove the car up the elongated dirt road, "All I know that if God was a gastroenterologist who decided to give Satan a colonoscopy, the interior of that cave looks most like what I'd imagine the inside of Satan's rectum would look like."

Noah Deveraux grimaced at the thought of that. "Nice thought", he said with great sarcasm, "So you've been inside there yourself, then?"

Harrison nodded. "Yeah", he began to explain, "While we were all fighting the cult, there were several rumors floating around that the Peggies were stashing the money they stole from Hope County's citizens inside Horned Serpent Cave. I took it upon myself to head up here and get back as much money as I could grab to get it back to its rightful owners."

Deveraux smiled. "You're a regular Robin Hood, Sheriff", he said, "Was there any money to find?"

"Hell yes, there was", Harrison replied, "Close to five hundred grand worth of cold, hard cash banded into bricks. It took me three treacherous trips back and forth on my hands and knees, but I managed to bring back about fifty thousand in cash bricks. Earl Whitehorse told me later on that the Montana National Guard was able to go in and get the rest and return it to people."

"What'd you do with the money you found?" Deveraux asked curiously.

"I turned it over to Earl", Harrison replied, "It sat in a safe at the jail until the FBI came to Hope County and took custody of it during the execution of the Governor's Martial Law order. As far as I know, it's still sitting in the Bureau's secure lab vault in Virginia."

Harrison and Deveraux finally reached the summit entrance of Horned Serpent Cave. The two men almost immediately took note of the fact that a few vehicles from the Missoula Fire Department were at hand on the scene in addition to Hope County's own volunteer fire department vehicles. Additionally, the white pickup truck that Adam Xander had reported finding sat on the edge of the final turn before the summit and was in the process of being meticulously photographed and searched by a crime lab team from the Montana Highway Patrol.

The sheriff and the Major Case Section Chief exited the sheriff's Dodge Charger and approached Adam Xander. Xander was dressed in bright yellow firefighter's turnout gear, complete with his Hope County Volunteer Fire Department helmet, and was looking down the deep one hundred-foot hole that served as Horned Serpent Cave's rear entry point. This deep entrance was only accessible by repelling down inside it on a rope line, as Harrison himself had previously done for his mission to retrieve the stashed money.

"Hey Adam!" Harrison said, "Thanks for the heads up, bud. What's going on?"

Xander looked up from the hole and nodded to Harrison and Deveraux. "Hey Sheriff", he said, "Dakota and I were on patrol in the area when we received a report from a Cessna pilot who had heard about the bulletin you put out on those missing Eden's Gate vehicles. He spotted the white pickup from the air seemingly abandoned up here, so we proceeded up to the summit and spotted the truck. It was clear, sir, nobody inside."

"What's with all the fire trucks up here?" Harrison asked intriguingly.

"That's the thing, man", Xander began to explain, "As soon as we got up here and decided to take a look around, we were hit with the smell of burnt flesh, like boiled skin, you know? I shined my flashlight down into this hole here and spotted the body of what looks like a white adult male. He's burnt up pretty bad. I know our fire department doesn't have the equipment for a deep cave operation to do a body recovery, so I put in a call to Missoula FD."

Harrison nodded. "So theoretically then", he said, "Our supposed Peggie shoots at our boys in Holland Valley, takes off like a bat out of Hell, only to drive all the way up here, repel down into a cave chock full of two-hundred-and-twelve-degree water and kill himself."

"It's amazing he was able to try and crawl his way out before dying", Deveraux said.

With that, Adam Xander eyed Deveraux suspiciously. "I'm sorry", he said, "and you are…?"

Harrison smirked, realizing his oversight. "My apologies, fellas", he said, "Adam Xander, this is Chief Noah Deveraux with the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation. He and his agency will be helping us out on the Eden's Gate case."

Xander shook Deveraux's hand. "Nice to meet you", he said, "Anyway, that theory seems to be correct. We think that our suspect jumped into the hot spring's water, sustained massive burns, and then instinctively tried to crawl his way back out before ultimately succumbing to shock."

"Was there any ID on the suspect?" Deveraux asked.

Xander shook his head. "Too soon to tell", he said, "We didn't find a wallet or anything like that inside the truck and I think our boy's a little too badly burned for anything distinguishable to still be on him."

"Where's Dakota?" Harrison asked Xander.

"He's with the Highway Patrol's crime scene team going over the suspect's truck", Xander replied, "I'm going to stay here and help the Missoula team get the body out of the hole."

Harrison nodded. "Nice work Adam", he said with a very pleased tone.

Xander nodded back at the sheriff with gratitude as Harrison and Deveraux walked a bit further back down the dirt turnoff to where Dakota Michaels stood by the now deceased suspect's parked pickup truck and diligently writing down notes in his memo book. All around him, technicians from the Montana Highway Patrol's Crime Lab thoroughly photographing and documenting the truck.

"How goes it, Dakota?" Harrison asked.

Dakota Michaels looked up from his thorough notetaking to see Harrison and Deveraux. "Hey Troy", he greeted before motioning to Deveraux with his eyes, "Who's this?"

Deveraux extended a polite hand to the deputy. "Hello Deputy", he said warmly, "Noah Deveraux, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation."

Michaels shook the Major Case Section Chief's hand quite firmly. "Dakota Michaels", he said, "Nice to meet you, sir."

"Chief Deveraux's going to be helping us out on the Eden's Gate case for a while", Harrison said, "Two of his agents will be joining us here in Hope County later on this evening. So, what's up with this truck here, bud?"

Michaels flipped his memo book back open and glanced at what he had written. "Well", he began, "We have a white Two-Thousand-Sixteen Dodge Ram fifteen-hundred pickup truck, Montana license plates four-one-three-Alpha-Frank-Kilo. Matches the bulletin about the missing Eden's Gate vehicles that the FBI put out, and the plates match exactly to the number Kevin Dodd called into Dispatch when Mike Whitehorse was shot last night."

Harrison sighed with great reprieve. "So, this is it, then. The dead guy in the hole is most likely the shooter."

Deveraux nodded. "Your Deputy Xander just told us you guys couldn't find identification of any sort inside", he said.

"That's right, Chief", Michaels said, "but the crime scene guys did find the weapon we believe to be the one that shot Mike." He motioned to a young black male technician with gloved hands who wore a "Montana Highway Patrol: Crime Lab" windbreaker. The young tech held up a black-tinted AR-C assault rifle with both hands.

"Where'd you find it?" Harrison asked.

"It was laying on the passenger side floorboard", the tech replied, "I'm taking it back to our laboratory to be checked for trace evidence and fingerprints."

Noah Deveraux then chimed in. "Do me a favor please", he asked the tech as he slipped one of his business cards into the front pocket of his windbreaker, "When you get those test results back, please fax the necessary copies to my office at that number. Could you also send copies to Sheriff Harrison here and also to Special Agent Dennis Donovan at the FBI's Resident Agency in Butte?"

The young technician nodded graciously. "Copy all that", he said before walking away.

Harrison nodded to Deveraux. "Thank you", he said.

Deveraux put up his hands. "No need to thank me, Sheriff", he said, "We're all on the same team. I promised you I'd keep the lines of communication open, and you're trying to help me find my sister. That's more than enough payment."

The sheriff then turned his attention back to Michaels. "Dakota", he said, "I think the lab folks have the truck covered for now. Why don't you go help out Adam over by the hole? They're going to be pulling out the body soon and I assume they're going to need all the hands they can get."

Michaels nodded. "You got it, boss", he said before walking over to where Adam Xander and the other firefighters were. He put on brown leather work gloves as he jaunted over.

The firefighters on scene had set up a pulley system that would normally be used in scenarios where live victims would need to be extricated, such as rescuing an injured hiker off a mountain with uneven terrain. In this case, however, they were going to be removing the dead cult shooter's body from the hole without physically having to go into the deep hole themselves due to the hazard posed by the boiling water.

Adam Xander initiated the process by attaching the long, dense pulley rope onto a long metal post they had stuck into the ground. A pair of Missoula firefighters then mounted a portable gurney basket, known as a Stokes Basket, onto the opposite end of the rope. The two firefighters and Deputy Michaels then went over behind the post with Michaels gripping the starting end of the pulley rope with his now gloved hands.

"You guys all set?" Xander asked the three men

The three men nodded confidently. "We're ready to go, Adam", Michaels said.

"Alright", Xander said as he took a moment to look down into the hole. "Looks like the Stokes Basket's aligned well with the body, so what we're going to do is slowly pull the basket with the body as best as we can. On the count of three, we start pulling."

When Xander's verbal count hit three, Deputy Michaels and the two firefighters began to gradually pull the Stokes Basket up and out from inside Horned Serpent Cave. Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux had made their way over the hole just as the Stokes Basket finally appeared above ground.

Everyone on scene was met with the ghastly sight and smell of a severely burned body, its features so badly scalded and contorted that it looked like some sort of monstrous creature rather than a human being. Even experienced investigators Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux were taken aback by the unsettling sight and pungent aroma of burnt flesh.

"Dear God", Harrison exclaimed as he put a hand over his mouth. He then composed himself and donned a pair of blue nitrile examination gloves before leaning down to visually inspect the body. "It doesn't matter how long you do this work", Harrison said very matter-of-factly, "you never get used to how awful burnt human flesh smells."

Deveraux put his own pair of gloves on his hands before leaning down near Harrison to take a look for himself. "I don't see anything obvious that could help us to better ID this poor son of a gun", he said, "no tattoos, no visible birthmarks, unique piercings…"

Harrison shot the Chief a look that basically cut off what remained of that statement. "I appreciate your sympathy, Chief", he said, "and it's my belief that everyone should have sympathy for the dead, but please do me a favor and don't lose sight of the fact that this numb-nuts just shot at and nearly killed two of my deputies, putting one in the hospital with three busted ribs and a bruised lung."

Deveraux nodded respectfully. "Duly noted, Sheriff", he said, "I meant no disrespect."

Harrison sighed deeply and stood back up, addressing Adam Xander. "Did someone call the Medical Examiner's Office?" he asked.

"I put in a call right after Missoula FD arrived to help us out", Xander replied, "the first available Missoula County M.E. was tied up with a fatal house fire, but Dispatch just radioed back an update. He'll be here in about forty-five minutes."

"Okay", Harrison said, "Let's take some photos of the body at all angles, please, then put him in a body bag as carefully as possible and keep him in the back of an ambulance 'till the M.E. gets here, okay? There's no need for his body to just lay out here and decay before the doc's able to get to him, right?"

"True", Xander replied just before heading to one of the emergency vehicles, presumably to retrieve a camera and a body bag.

"Sheriff?" Deveraux asked softly, "Can I speak to you privately for a moment, please?"

With that, Harrison went off to the side to speak with Deveraux. "Look Sheriff", Deveraux said, "I hope I didn't offend you with that comment. I, of all people, have the utmost empathy toward your men, especially with what happened to Deputy Whitehorse. But whatever our suspect was before he died tonight, he was still a human being first and foremost."

"Understood", Harrison said, "And your absolutely right, Chief. I'm sorry for coming off as brash. Let's considered it squashed, okay?" He extended a hand.

Deveraux gladly reciprocated the sheriff's handshake. "Squashed", he said. Just then, the Chief's cell phone vibrated, and he promptly took his phone off his belt clip and checked it. "Good news", he continued after a moment, "My two agents are waiting for us at your office."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: "Hello, Father"**

_Conference Room  
Hope County Jail & Sheriff's Office  
Henbane River_

With the news that two of Chief Noah Deveraux's agents from the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation had arrived at the Hope County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Harrison convened a meeting with every available member of the department in the large conference room of the Sheriff's Office. Everyone was able to attend the meeting, with the exception of Deputies Adam Xander and Dakota Michaels, who were busy finishing things up at the site of the body recovery operation at Horned Serpent Cave.

Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux were met by DCI Agents Tim Hallow and Tanya Khalim. Tim Hallow was a tall athletically built white man looking to be in his mid-thirties, dressed very sharply in a brown trench coat, a white button-down shirt, and brown slacks. His female partner, the statuesque African American Tanya Khalim, looked to be slightly younger, dressed just as professionally in a form-fitting black pant suit and had her thick, dark dreadlocks put into a neat bun on the top of her head.

"Sheriff Harrison?" Tim Hallow inquired

"Yes", he replied as he extended a hand to the man

Hallow shook his hand firmly. "Nice to meet you sir", he said, "Agent Tim Hallow, Major Case Section, Montana DCI." He motioned to his partner. "This is my partner, Agent Tanya Khalim."

Harrison repeated the gesture with Agent Khalim. "The pleasure's all mine", he said, "And I don't mean to be rude by asking this, but would you mind pronouncing your last name again for me so I don't mispronounce it later, please?"

Khalim flashed an amused smile before obliging the sheriff. "_'Kuh-Leem'_", she carefully annunciated. "It's nice to meet you too, Sheriff", she continued, "I think I speak for Agent Hallow, Chief Deveraux, and myself when I say that it's a pleasure to be helping you all out with this."

Looking around the roomy conference room, Harrison noticed that Sergeant Asher, Deputy Hudson, and Deputy Pratt were seated around the large conference table. "Hey guys", he greeted everyone as a whole, "Thank you all so much for taking time out of your regular duties to attend this briefing. As you all know, Deputies Dodd and Whitehorse are still on leave, but I'll keep them informed as needed. Deputies Xander and Michaels are finishing up at Horned Serpent Cave and should be joining us shortly. I assume that our visitors have already introduced themselves, so we can dispense with the formal introductions."

"We have", Agent Hallow replied, "I've already handed out the DCI dossiers on the Seeds and the Project Eden's Gate Cult, as Chief Deveraux asked."

Harrison nodded, noting that each person seated around the table had a case folder in front of them. "Alright then", he began, "For those of you who don't know, the Project Eden's Gate Cult was founded by the Seed Family about eighteen years ago. The group's leader is Joseph Seed, known as 'The Father'. He is a self-styled preacher and religious zealot who served nine years in a Georgia prison for killing his infant daughter back in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight."

The sheriff then took a moment just to take a breath, finding the subject of a deceased infant to be a particularly difficult one to approach. "As the story goes", he continued, "his wife was pregnant and almost completely to term when she was involved in a very serious car crash. His wife succumbed to her injuries at the hospital, but not before her daughter was delivered by way of an emergency C-Section."

Joey Hudson sensed how troubling this grim topic was to her boss, so she took it upon herself to chime in and assist in the case presentation, getting up from her seat and standing beside Harrison at the head of the table. "Joseph was apparently left alone beside his daughter's bed in the Neonatal ICU", she chimed in, "To paraphrase the statement he gave the Georgia authorities after his arrest, he squeezed the plastic tubes from the baby's nasal cannula and turned off her life support. Joseph saw the killing as an act of mercy."

Agent Tim Hallow raised his hand. "How was it that this guy only received nine years as opposed to life?" he asked.

Harrison flipped through to the section of the case file detailing the subsequent court case. "According to the courtroom transcript from his trial back then", he said, "he claimed some sort of 'religious awakening' and had the prison chaplain testify on his behalf. I guess it convinced the judge and the jury."

Everyone in the room let out a collective sigh of frustration. "I hate the hypocrisy of that", Hallow said very candidly, "This guy finds God and still more people die."

Harrison put a hand up to silence any other unsolicited comments. "I appreciate and even agree with that point, Agent", he said, "but we need to stay on task here, please, okay? We still have a lot of things to cover." He turned back to Hudson and nodded for her to continue.

"To make a long story short and as I'm sure you all know by now", Hudson continued, "the Seeds and the Project Eden's Gate cult tried to take over Hope County earlier this year and really put us all through a real Hell on Earth. Sheriff Harrison, our former sheriff Earl Whitehorse, Deputy Pratt, and myself spent months fighting those Peggie assholes." Hudson sighed deeply and put a hand under her chin.

Harrison then stood back up and retook the floor. "Deputies Hudson and Pratt as well as Sheriff Whitehorse and I were all held captive by the cult at different points during their siege", he explained, "Those traumas took pretty big tolls on all of us. I was hospitalized for a while and even left the country for a few weeks before getting the offer from Earl Whitehorse to succeed him as Sheriff."

"I see that you were contacted by the CIA and given intel that the cult may still be active in some areas, is that right?" Agent Khalim asked as she skimmed through the contents of the folder.

"Yes", Harrison replied, "A group of CIA operatives and an FBI agent who were apparently doing their own investigations into Eden's Gate gave us a heads-up about recent terrorist activities in other countries around the world that all seemed to connect back to the cult." He motioned to Sergeant Asher. "They even made us aware of a connection to a case that Sergeant Asher and I were part of when we worked with the Chicago Police Department", he added before addressing the Sergeant herself, "Sarge, would you mind coming up here and explain things further, please?"

Sergeant Asher promptly stood up from her seat, went over and stood beside Harrison, taking the floor. "Seven years ago," she explained, "Sheriff Harrison and I were working with the Chicago PD. On February First, Two-Thousand-Eleven, he and I were working a patrol shift together during a really bad snowstorm when we learned of a nine-one-one call reporting an abandoned baby outside Saint Augustine's Church." She cleared her throat before continuing. "As such", she continued, "we responded as quickly as we could to the church."

"And what did you find when you arrived at the church?" Agent Khalim asked.

"We found a newborn baby girl wrapped in a blanket and screaming her head off in a cardboard box", Asher replied, "Given how cold it was outside, we figured we didn't have time for an ambulance to be dispatched and try to respond in crappy, unsafe winter weather, so I carried her into the backseat of our patrol car and tried to keep her as warm as I could while Troy hauled ass to the nearest Emergency Room two blocks away, which he very skillfully did."

"The baby was nearly hypothermic by the time we reached the hospital", Harrison added, "But the doctors were able to successfully stabilize her. She remained in the hospital's nursery for a few days before being taken into the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. She went through a few foster homes before being adopted by a family from another state. That's all we were able to find out at the time."

"That is", Asher said, "until earlier this week when Troy, Hudson, and I were called to a surprise meeting with those CIA people and Troy's FBI friend, Agent Donovan. They told us that the FBI lab ran DNA samples from Joseph Seed and Faith Seed, who was also known by her real birth name, Rachel Jessop, through their database. It turns out that this abandoned baby we had found in Chicago, known to all the Chicago-area media as 'Baby Augustine', is in fact the biological child of both Joseph Seed and Faith Seed, a.k.a. Rachel Jessop."

"Which explains the connection to the cult", Deputy Pratt said, "When you guys found the baby back in Chicago, did you find anything useful at the church that pointed you to who could've left her there?"

"The CPD crime lab techs found fingerprints on the flaps of the box she had been left in", Harrison said, "But they didn't register any hits in any of the databases at the time."

"This 'Baby Augustine' would be around seven years old now", Agent Hallow pointed out, "Have you had any luck trying to figure out where she is now?"

"I called our old CPD district station this morning and asked them to 'Overnight' the case file", Asher said, "It should arrive at my office by tomorrow morning."

Just then, Adam Xander and Dakota Michaels entered the conference room. "Sorry we're late", Xander said, "We had the suspect's vehicle towed from Horned Serpent Cave to the Highway Patrol station in Billings."

Sheriff Harrison then took the time to introduce the late arrivals to Chief Deveraux and his two DCI agents as well as fill them in on what they've discussed so far. He then gave Chief Deveraux a look, which he interpreted as his cue to come to the front and take the floor.

Deveraux sighed deeply before addressing everyone. "This is a very tough subject for me to bring up", he said with a remorseful tone, "but as it turns out, I myself have a very personal connection to the cult, and that's why I've asked you all here." He choked back sadness before beginning his explanation. "Thirteen years ago," he began, "my sixteen-year-old sister, Marcie Jean Deveraux, disappeared from our hometown of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. I found out later that it wasn't the storm that took her, but in fact she left to join up with Joseph Seed and Project Eden's Gate."

"I'm very sorry, boss" Agent Hallow said, "Has there been any confirmed sign of her since she left?"

"No", Deveraux replied, "I checked the arrest reports filed by both you folks here in Hope County and by the FBI. No one fitting Marcie Jean's description was booked into either county or federal custody, and she's not among the cult members who were killed."

Agent Khalim opened her case folder and pulled out a specific report. "I may have some things here that may help, Chief", she said, "Agent Hallow and I stopped by the Missoula County Medical Examiner's Office on our way here. They rushed dental charts on your deceased suspect from Horned Serpent Cave. They matched a missing person from Louisiana named Abel Beaupre. He was a seventeen-year-old kid from New Orleans who disappeared after leaving Crescent City High School on May Tenth, Two-Thousand-Six. The kid had no prior history of any trouble, so the New Orleans PD wrote it up as a routine runaway case. He hasn't been seen since."

This finding set off light bulbs from within Chief Deveraux's mind. "My sister was a student at Crescent City High", he said, "I remember she was friends with a boy named Abel who was a bit older than her."

"So, is it possible your sister recruited this boy and sent for him after she joined up with the cult?" Harrison asked.

"I think what we found at Horned Serpent Cave tonight proves that", Deveraux stated very assuredly, "Yes."

"There is something else, Chief", Agent Khalim said, "the crime lab technicians found a mixture of assorted trace material on the driver's side floormat of the white pickup that Abel Beaupre had been driving. Mud, mice hairs, what appears to be a big abundance of rodent feces, wood shavings, and a wet footprint that appears to have been made in fresh water."

"Fresh uncontaminated water?" Hudson asked.

Agent Khalim nodded. "Yes", she said, "the water sample was pure."

"That actually narrows things down a lot", Hudson said, "When the cult took over Hope County, Faith Seed and her disciples contaminated a lot of our bodies of water by dumping Bliss straight into them. The government cleaned things up as best as they could during the Martial Law order, but tests are still bringing up remnants of Bliss components in the water at certain locations."

"So that leaves which bodies of water left unspoiled, Joey?" Harrison asked.

Hudson took a second to think. "There's the Silver Lake region between here and the Holland Valley", she said, "but that's federal land watched over by the Park Rangers and this old reclusive veteran named Dutch Roosevelt."

"I remember him", Harrison said, "he gave me shelter and aid after the helicopter crash."

"Right", Hudson said, "There's no way that he or the Rangers would give shelter to a Peggie without a major fight. But when you add a ton of rodent shit, mud, and wood in addition to the freshwater, that points to Orville Creek in the Holland Valley. There's an old shack right beside the creek that provides access to the unused mine tunnels that connect to the creek. We locals call it the Wellington Residence."

"So, it stands to reason", Harrison said, "If Abel Beaupre took shelter there right before he shot Mike Whitehorse, he probably left some stuff behind that could point us in the direction of the Chief's sister. I say we hit the place first thing tomorrow, but let's call it a night for now."

Everyone got up from their respective seats at the table, at which point Agent Hallow shook the sheriff's hand once again. "Thanks for your insights, Sheriff", he said, "You have a great team here. We'll be staying at the Henbane River Chalets if you need us.

_Solitary Housing Pod  
United States Federal Penitentiary  
Florence, Colorado  
7:00 P.M. (Mountain Standard Time)_

Federal Correctional Officer Erika Marsden arrived for her usual graveyard shift at the high-security U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. She would often work the intake desk, but due to another officer having called in sick, tonight she was to guard the Solitary Housing Pod, where the facility's most vicious, aggressive, and/or otherwise dangerous inmates were housed in claustrophobically small solitary confinement cubicles. 29-year-old Officer Marsden had only been employed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons for just over two years and was new to Colorado after working for a year at another federal penitentiary in California.

Officer Jason Bingham, who guarded the entrance to Solitary Housing Pod, said hello to Officer Marsden as she made her entrance into the unit at 7:00 P.M. that evening. He provided her with the necessary supplies she would need during the course of her twelve-hour shift before Marsden scanned her employee keycard through the security scanner, which then allowed her access into the unit through an automatic inner door.

Marsden spent about twenty minutes walking the long corridor of the Solitary Housing Pod, looking into the rectangular observation window that each cubicle had at the top of its impenetrable reinforced white steel door. She finally reached the end of the hall and checked the last cubicle, located on the farthest corner of the hall. She peered inside the observation window for a moment before inserting her large skeleton key into the door's large lock and opening the door.

Joseph "The Father" Seed sat in a nearly fetal position in the corner of the darkened cell. His few months in federal custody had really done a number on his appearance. His long brown hair, which he had previously always had fashioned into a bun, had been mandatorily shaved completely bald by a prison barber in response to a facility-wide outbreak of head lice, likewise with his full beard. The lack of natural light in his windowless solitary confinement cubicle had turned Joseph's skin a ghostly pale tone, and his repeated refusals to eat citing a choice to fast in accordance with his religious beliefs had left the cult leader looking all but emaciated. His many religiously themed tattoos, now stretched over his sickly slender and pale skin, were the only reminder of who this diabolical and manipulative man had once been.

"What hath God wrought?" Joseph said.

Erika Marsden, or at least, the woman posing as Erika Marsden, knelt in front of the cult leader and warmly touched his face in the way a daughter would comfortingly touch her father after not having seen him for a long period of time.

"Hello, Father", she said, "The exodus I've arranged for is upon us."

"Hello, My Marcie Jean", she said, "I'm ready for my liberation. It's time for us to take our home back."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: This Couldn't Wait**

_Bradley's Gas Station  
Casper, Wyoming  
11:00 PM_

After posing as Federal Correctional Officer Erika Marsden and walking Project Eden's Gate cult leader Joseph "The Father" Seed out of the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado under the guise of a prisoner transfer, long-time cult member Marcie Jean Deveraux hustled Joseph into the backseat of a stolen white 2018 GMC Acadia SUV and took off.

They remained on the road for roughly five hours before they stopped for gas at a small and somewhat secluded mom-and-pop gas station in Casper, Wyoming that stayed open 24 hours. Marcie Jean figured that an isolated place like this wasn't full of high-tech security cameras like a lot of the more modern places in bigger locales were, and considering she was still wearing her correctional officer's uniform, she also figured that no one would question why she had a handcuffed man in her backseat.

These assumptions proved to be accurate when Marcie Jean was able to pump the gas and pay for a full tank's worth of fuel, two premade egg salad sandwiches, two bottled waters, and two packs of cigarettes without the acne-stricken teenage clerk asking too many questions.

"Anything else tonight, ma'am?" the clerk very politely asked. He was a red-headed white boy who looked to be approaching eighteen.

"Actually, yes", Deveraux replied, "Cellular service seems to be kind of dismal out here. Do you have a phone I could use, by chance?"

The young clerk pointed to the store's side door, situated just opposite from the counter. "You're in luck", he said, "Right outside that door is one of the last remaining payphones in the area. Local calls are fifty cents. A dollar and seventy-five gets you long distance." He gave the woman a very earnest smile.

Marcie Jean gave the boy a smile of her own in return as she collected the items she purchased and held them under one arm before heading out the side door. "Thanks", she said.

She re-entered the driver's seat of the Acadia about five minutes later, passing one of the bottled waters and one of the sandwiches over the backseat to the newly liberated Joseph.

"Everything seems to be in proper order, Father", she said as the took a swig of her own bottled water, "I've called our family members in Montana and gotten an update on how things have transpired there."

"Is there anything to report?" he asked as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"I'm sorry, Father", Marcie Jean replied with a very sorrowful tone in her voice, "but it appears that thirty-three of our brothers and sisters have died at the hands of the FBI, the Hope County Sheriff's Department, and the military. Seven are in federal custody awaiting charges."

Joseph sighed deeply and took a drink of water before replying. "They died for our family", he said, "They shall be rewarded in the hereafter. Anything new in Hope County?"

"Yes", Marcie Jean replied, "Junior Deputy Troy Harrison has been appointed as Sheriff of Hope County. Earl Whitehorse has apparently retired and moved back to the Blackfeet Reservation where he grew up. Sheriff Harrison inherited two new deputies and hired three more. Brother Abel, Lord rest his soul, encountered two of them on the road a few nights ago. They survived, he didn't."

"Mistakes happen, darling", Joseph said, "Is there anything we can use for leverage on Harrison or the other deputies?"

"I took it upon myself to do my own research on them, Father", Marcie Jean replied, "One new member of the department, a Sergeant by the name of Abigail Asher, has a personal relationship with Harrison. She got into some trouble with a drug addiction back in Chicago, and Harrison helped her get her job back, only to hire her to run the jail in Hope County. Apparently, the two of them were also childhood friends who grew up in the same Vermont town."

The cult leader smirked. "Well", Joseph said, "Mister Harrison was always a righteous do-gooder. Anything else?"

"Yes", Marcie Jean replied, "Our source in Chicago advised that Sergeant Asher put in a request for the police case file on your daughter from Two-Thousand-Eleven, sir. She asked that it be delivered to the Hope County Jail, and apparently the mailed file is currently in transit."

Joseph nodded. "Are we any closer to finding my baby girl?" he asked.

Marcie Jean regrettably shook her head. "Not yet, sir", she said, "but we're working on it."

"I hope so, Marcie Jean", Joseph said, "Because with Faith and my brothers gone, we need to prolong the Eden's Gate bloodline as soon as possible and continue our work. Were our Hope County sources able to gather any other information?"

"Harrison has another deputy working for him named Dakota Michaels", Marcie Jean replied, "he had apparently worked with Harrison while they were members of a police department on the West Coast. He's a recent divorcee with a three-year-old daughter. His ex-wife was able to get a manager position at a restaurant in Missoula, Montana in order to better accommodate their shared custody arrangement. We have a source at that restaurant that can get to her easily should we need to."

Joseph gave his disciple a very manically amused smile. "Very good work, Marcie Jean. I'm very pleased with your progress."

_Wellington Residence  
Holland Valley Region, Hope County  
The Next Morning_

Sheriff Harrison, Sergeant Asher, Deputy Hudson, Deputy Pratt, Chief Deveraux, and Agents Hallow and Khalim all congregated around a dark green unmarked panel van at the dirt road turn-off that lead into Orville Creek and, eventually, the abandoned Wellington Residence. The seven law enforcement officers strapped on bulletproof tactical vests and loaded up their handguns and shotguns while Agent Hallow readied a large black steel battering ram to knock down the door. Harrison appointed Deputy Joey Hudson to instruct everyone on the tactical plan to raid the derelict house since she had better knowledge of the location.

"Let's go over the entry plan now, guys", Hudson stated, "We're all going to stack up in a straight line behind each other and make our way up this dirt path. There's a rickety wooden footbridge at the end of the path and the wood's kind of rotten, so everybody watches their step when we're going across. The house is going to be on your left with Orville Creek and its big waterfall set way back from the rear of the house."

The very resolute female deputy then turned to Agent Hallow. "Hallow", he continued, "Since you've got the ram, you'll be the one to do the initial knock-and-announce when we get to the door. You know the drill, if there's no answer, you announce our presence once more and then forcefully breach the door with your ram."

"Understood, ma'am", Hallow said.

"Okay", Hudson said, "Once Hallow breaches the door down, Agent Khalim's going to throw a flash grenade inside the house. Once she does that, we're going to fall back a little bit for a moment and let the flash grenade do its thing. Remember to keep your eyes shielded from the flash as best as you can. As soon as the flash subsides, we all make entry and tactically clear every visible inch of that house's interior."

"Anything we should be aware of inside?" Sergeant Asher asked.

Hudson nodded. "That's a great question, Abby", she replied, "because there is. There's a section of floor on the far-left interior corner that's been removed and it appears that somebody actually dug deeply into the Earth below at some point to access the old mine tunnels beneath the house. Last time I was in there a while back, there was a ladder sticking out of the hole and everything."

"Joey", Sheriff Harrison chimed in, "Do you think there's any immediate need for us to go down into those old mine tunnels once we clear the house?"

Hudson shook her head. "I don't see the point unless we see any indication that someone has recently tried to enter the tunnels", she said.

Chief Noah Deveraux then raised his hand to say something. "I'm sorry y'all", he said, "but do you mind if I hang back and wait for you in the van?"

Harrison shot the man a look of concern. "Is everything okay, Chief?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine", Deveraux said, "I'm just concerned that if I were to go in there with y'all and come upon some important evidence that could point us to where my sister is, I wouldn't want some defense attorney to try and taint our case down the road by accusing me of bias."

The sheriff understood the Chief's very honest and valid point. "Okay", he replied with a reassuring nod and tone, "there's a radio headset in the van. You can communicate with us on it and monitor our radio traffic."

Now comforted by Harrison's flexibility, Deveraux nodded back. "Thanks", he said before giving pause to let things continue.

"If there's nothing else", Harrison said, "Let's mount up!"

Chief Deveraux reentered the van while the six others formed a very snug line, a technique known in law enforcement jargon as "stacking". Agents Hallow and Khalim occupied the front of the line with Deputies Hudson and Pratt in the middle and, finally, Sergeant Asher and Sheriff Harrison at the very end. As they inched their way increasingly closer to the old shack, Harrison keyed the mic on his portable radio.

"Chief, do you copy us?" he asked.

"Ten-four", Deveraux replied following a small electronic chirp sound that indicated Deveraux keying the "Transmit" button on his headset, "Loud and clear."

"Copy", Harrison said in a quiet tone, "Hope County Dispatch, be advised, Hope County Alpha One and three deputies are about to make entry into the old Wellington Residence. DCI Chief Deveraux and Agents Khalim and Hallow are assisting, over."

"Ten-four, Hope County Alpha One", Dispatcher Betty Adams replied through the radio, "Will await further information. Be safe, over."

The line of officers arrived at the old Wellington Residence and lined up in front of the door as planned. The house was nothing more than a small ramshackle dwelling situated in nothing but woods. All of its windows appeared to be boarded up with old, rotting wooden planks.

Agent Tim Hallow turned his head to the back of the line for a moment, giving Sheriff Harrison a look as if he was asking for his approval to enter. Realizing this, Harrison gave him an approving nod and the DCI agent loudly banged on the door.

"Montana State law enforcement!" Hallow announced in a very loud and commanding tone, "Come to the door now or we'll be forcing entry!"

The next ten seconds felt like ten minutes, but no answer ever came to the old shack's rotting door. Hallow gripped the large steel battering ram with a hand on each side before slamming into the door with full force, sending the door falling to the ground inside.

The six officers made their way into the house, tactically clearing every noticeable corner of the decrepit interior. As expected, a section of the floor had been removed and a large hole had been dug into the Earth beneath the shack, exposing a makeshift entrance into the unused mine tunnels that paralleled Orville Creek. The rest of the shack was sparsely filled with furnishings that looked like they had been made sometime during the previous century.

"Clear!" Agent Hallow said as he cleared the main room of the shack.

Sheriff Harrison then came upon what appeared to be a closed closet door. "Closet!" He called out, "Somebody come give me cover!" He carefully aimed his Sig-Sauer P-226 handgun at the door.

Just then, Sergeant Asher walked up opposite to the sheriff, holding a large tactical shotgun. "I've got you, Troy", she said to him. "This is the Hope County Sheriff's Department!" she hollered at the closed door, "If anybody's in there, open the door slowly and keep your hands in view!"

They got no response, so Harrison momentarily holstered his gun and reached for the closet's very rusty doorknob. Throwing the door open, Asher pointed the shotgun inside the small closet. There obviously wasn't anyone hiding in there, armed or otherwise, and the cobwebs that layered the old coats and pants hanging inside indicated the clothes hadn't been touched in quite some time.

Asher sighed and pointed the shotgun upward in a safe position. "Damn!" she exclaimed, "It looks like that wet footprint you guys found lead us on a wild goose chase."

Harrison put a hand on Asher's shoulder. "Be cool, Sarge", he said, "Could you do some things for me?"

Asher nodded. "Sure", she said.

"Secure your weapon and grab the evidence kit from the van, please", Harrison said, "Just because we didn't find any Peggies in here doesn't mean we won't be able to find something that could point us to Deveraux's sister."

Asher sighed. "Yes sir", she replied, "Sorry for acting so amped up, boss. It's just that this is the first time I've been able to do any real police work since before I left Chicago. I guess I was just expecting a bit more action."

Harrison smiled. "I get it, kid", he said reassuringly, "One step at a time, though, okay? Go out, secure your shotgun, take off your vest, take some deep breaths, take a drink from your water bottle, and grab that evidence kit."

"So, business as usual, huh, Sheriff?" she asked.

"Yep", Harrison said, "It's all we can do, Sarge."

Asher turned around, her shotgun safely pointed down, and went outside.

Just then, Dispatcher Betty Adams' voice was heard over the radio. "Hope County Dispatch to Hope County Alpha One. Sheriff, do you copy, over?"

Harrison promptly keyed his radio. "Hope County Alpha One to Dispatch", he replied into the radio mic, "I copy you, Betty, over."

"Sheriff", Betty said through the radio, "Be advised, there's a Special Agent Donovan from the FBI here at the office waiting for you. He says he needs to see you in person immediately regarding an urgent matter, over."

Harrison let out a very frustrated sigh. "This is all I need right now", he said to himself under his breath just before keying his radio once again. "Ten-Four. I'm responding Code Two from Holland Valley and will have an ETA of about fifteen minutes. Be advised, Hope County Four-Two-Six will be holding down the scene here with Hope County Three-Oh-Two, Hope County Three-Fifteen, and the DCI team, over."

"Copy", Betty responded, "Dispatch out."

The sheriff headed out to the van where Chief Deveraux, Agents Hallow and Khalim, and Sergeant Asher were getting ready to go back inside and thoroughly search the shack for evidence. "Hey Sheriff", Asher said, "We just overheard your radio traffic with Betty. What do you think Agent Donovan wants?"

Harrison shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea, Abby", he said, "All I know is that it's important, so I'm going to have to take the van. Abby, you and the DCI guys stay here and search the house for evidence, okay? You're the scene commander. I'll bring the van back as soon as I'm finished up with Donovan."

An encouraged Asher smiled. "Okay", she said, "You got it."

Harrison then turned to Chief Deveraux. "I have a feeling that you'd better come with me, Noah. Let's go."

_Hope County Jail & Sheriff's Office  
Henbane River  
15 Minutes Later_

Harrison and Deveraux entered the former's office to find FBI Special Agent Dennis "Denny" Donovan standing by his desk. He immediately extended a hand to Harrison as he came in.

"Hey Troy", he said, "Sorry to pull you in so urgently. But we have a big problem."

Harrison shook Donovan's hand and motioned to Chief Deveraux. "Denny Donovan", he said, "This is Chief Noah Deveraux from the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation. He and his team are helping us out with the Eden's Gate case. Noah, this is Special Agent Donovan with the FBI. We used to work together and now he runs the Bureau's residency in Butte."

Donovan reciprocated the handshake with Deveraux. "Please call me 'Denny'", he clarified for the chief, "I'm sorry we're not meeting under better circumstances, Chief."

"No worries Denny", Deveraux said, "Now, tell us, what's going on?"

At that moment, Denny Donovan saw no other way of breaking this tough news to them than to just say it straight. He looked Harrison dead in his eyes. "Joseph Seed escaped from the federal pen in Colorado, Troy", he said, "He's out and on the run."


	13. Chapter 13

_[Author's Note: I guess it was a bit of an oversight on my part, but I realized that I haven't featured a lot of the Guns or Fangs for Hire in this story. I'd like to express a very sincere "thank you" to God of the Challenge for posting your review alerting me to that error. This two-part chapter will indeed feature some of the Guns for Hire characters and a chapter or two in the future will feature some of the Fangs for Hire animals. Also, a fair warning that this chapter contains a scene in which our heroes discuss some pretty heavy topics such as addictions, depression, and personal traumas. I myself am a real-life sufferer of depression and thought it might be equally therapeutic and helpful to discuss it here, even in the context of a fictional story, and absolutely no offense or disrespect is meant toward those of you who grapple with these issues every day. You are not alone.] _

**Chapter 13: The Hard Truths of Life (Part 1)**

_Hope County Jail & Sheriff's Office  
Henbane River_

"Joseph Seed escaped from the federal pen in Colorado, Troy", FBI Special Agent Dennis "Denny" Donovan told Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux as they stood in the sheriff's office, "he's out and on the run."

Sheriff Troy Harrison's face almost instantly went white when he heard the news. He initially said nothing to neither Donovan nor Deveraux as he said in the chair behind his desk. "What do you know?" were the first words he was able to muster, "what are the facts?"

Agent Donovan took a seat in the first chair in front of the Sheriff's desk, while Chief Deveraux sat in the seat beside him. "It appears he had a female accomplice posing as a federal corrections officer at the federal penitentiary in Florence", Donovan said, "She was able to spring him from his solitary confinement cell and just walk him out of the facility. She told the prison staff that Seed was scheduled for a transfer to another prison, and she even had fudged paperwork at the ready to cover her bases."

Chief Noah Deveraux was equally worried at this as he was intrigued. "Was any description on the accomplice?" he asked.

"The agent from the Bureau's office in Denver that I spoke to said that she was a blonde woman in her late twenties to early thirties", Donovan replied, "about five-foot-seven with an athletic build. She went by the name 'Erika Marsden'. However, that's what seemed hinky to the agents in Denver."

"Why's that, Denny?" Harrison asked.

Donovan put a case folder bearing the FBI seal on Harrison's desktop. Harrison skimmed through its contents, which were apparently crime scene photos depicting a brutal double murder. "The police in Florence, Colorado found the bodies of two people late last night in a house just two miles from the U.S. Penitentiary", Donovan explained, "one white adult female, five-foot-seven, blonde hair, and an athletic build. She's been identified as twenty-nine-year-old Erika Marsden, who worked as a federal correctional officer for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. She was recently assigned to the U.S. Pen in Florence."

"Who's the other victim?" Deveraux asked.

"Apparently he was Miss Marsden's longtime boyfriend", Donovan replied, "James Brookfield, age thirty. He was also a federal corrections officer who worked at the same facility, just on a separate shift. The two of them were discovered bound and gagged with duct tape. They'd been stabbed about a dozen times each in the chest and abdomen before being stuffed in their clothes dryer. Erika's vehicle, a white Two-Thousand-Eighteen GMC Acadia, was missing from the scene."

"Any luck so far finding it?" Harrison asked.

Donovan nodded. "It was caught on a traffic camera running through a red light on its way out of Florence, and the camera caught a very pristine shot of the driver's face. The printed image is on the bottom of that pile of photos in there."

Harrison reached the printed image from the traffic camera and took a good look at it before sliding the image across the desk to Noah Deveraux. "Is that her, Noah?"

Deveraux hesitantly viewed the image before his face went almost equally as white as the sheriff's face had been just moments earlier. "Oh Jesus", he said with a tone like all the wind had been sucked out his lungs, "Yes, yes, that's her, Troy. That's Marcie Jean."

"Who is Marcie Jean?" a confused Donovan asked.

Knowing that Deveraux didn't have the emotional fortitude at the moment to explain his now confirmed link to the Seeds and Project Eden's Gate, Harrison chimed in to take the burden off him. "Marcie Jean Deveraux is Chief Deveraux's younger sister", Harrison explained, "She went missing from New Orleans in Two-Thousand-Five during Hurricane Katrina at the age of sixteen. Noah's always had a strong hunch that she went off to join up with Joseph Seed and Eden's Gate, but hasn't be able to prove it until, apparently, right this second."

Denny Donovan then put a comforting hand on the distraught DCI Chief's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Chief", he said, "I can't imagine how hard this must be for you and your family."

Deveraux took a tissue from the box on the desk and wiped his face and eyes. "Thank you, sir", he said very graciously, "I mean, thinking she was just a sad, confused teenager who ran away was one thing. But now, realizing that she's a goddamn cult member and possibly even a double murderer?"

"We're going to help figure this out, Noah", Harrison said, "For you, for your mother, for everybody affected by the cult, we've got this, buddy. That I can promise you, okay?"

While still trying to reassure the troubled Deveraux, Donovan looked over to Harrison. "I think the best I can do is call up the FBI office in Salt Lake City and brief them on what's happening", he said, "They can send us a squad of agents, resources, and even a damn SWAT team if we need them to."

Harrison nodded. "The more the merrier, Denny", he replied, "Do it. In the meantime, I'm going to hold a briefing of my own and see if I can get us some help on our end."

The conversation was interrupted by the sudden ringing of Harrison's office phone, which he promptly picked up. "Harrison", he answered.

"Sheriff", Dispatcher Betty Adams said, "Sorry to bother you in the middle of your meeting, sir, but Sergeant Asher's still out in the field, right?"

"That's right", Harrison replied, "She's in Holland Valley supervising an evidence search with Hudson, Pratt, and Chief Deveraux's DCI agents, why?"

"The mailman just dropped off a pretty sizeable package for her", Betty said, "The return address is listed as the District Thirty-Four station of the Chicago Police Department. She told me to expect a big case file coming from there. Could that be it?"

"Definitely", Harrison said, "Abby and I used to work at CPD District Thirty-Four, so yes, that's it. I'll come get it. Thanks, Betty."

"You're very welcome, sir", Betty replied before hanging up.

Harrison placed the receiver back on its cradle and scoffed, surprised at the irony of the situation's timing. "Speak of the Devil", he told Deveraux and Donovan, "Sergeant Asher asked Chicago PD to overnight the case file on 'Baby Augustine'. The mailman just dropped it off at the dispatch center."

_Highway Rest Area  
Near Livingston, Montana_

Joseph Seed and Marcie Jean Deveraux continued on their journey toward Hope County. They parked and abandoned the GMC Acadia that Marcie Jean had stolen after killing Erika Marsden and James Brookfield in a deserted rest area just off the highway near the town of Livingston, Montana. The rest area was nothing more than a small concrete structure that housed two rundown and perpetually unclean restrooms. An added bonus, the twisted couple thought, was that the entire property was surrounded by thick woods, which could make it easy for the pair to escape later.

Marcie Jean entered the women's restroom and flipped the light switch. The clicking of the switch being flipped on was immediately followed by the slow electrical humming of an antiquated fluorescent light trying to gradually illuminate itself on the water-damaged ceiling overhead.

"Hello?" Marcie Jean called out in case there were already others in there. She got no response and went into the first stall. Quickly changing out of the stolen correctional officer's uniform, she pulled on a pair of cheap drugstore panty hose, slipped into a pair of the late Erika Marsden's stolen high heeled shoes, and buttoned herself into an unassuming beige pantsuit that she doubted anyone would take a second look at.

She completed her disguised by putting on a cheap blonde bob hairstyle wig and applying some generically red lipstick.

Meanwhile, in the men's room next door, Joseph changed into a brand-new light blue button-down shirt with khaki slacks. His disguise was rounded out by a pair of very scholarly-looking black-rimmed glasses. He and Marcie Jean would look like nothing more than an ordinary and humble church couple to the general public. Naturally, they couldn't be more wrong, and that's what the couple was counting on.

The abnormal couple exited the rest area as a Dodge Ram pickup containing a family of four: a mother, father, 5-year-old son, and 11-year-old daughter, happened to pull up. As luck would have it, they happened to be towing a new speedboat on a hitch. All five of them got out, the mother and daughter making their way toward the rest area.

"Mom!" The daughter said, "Do we have to stop here? This place looks all old and gross."

"Yes, honey", the mother said, "We're stopping here. Unless you want to have a full bladder when we get to Grandma's lake house."

The young girl groaned and headed toward the women's restroom with her mother. The father and son stayed by the truck and talked among themselves while they waited.

"Excuse me?" Joseph called out as he and Marcie Jean walked up to the father.

The father looked up from his son and noticed what he thought was a very smartly dressed church couple walking towards them. "Yes?" the father responded, "Can I help you folks?"

Marcie Jean admired the boat for a moment. "That's a nice boat you have here", she said. Seemingly in a flash, she produced a silver-plated .38-caliber revolver and aimed it at the father.

"I think we'd like to take your truck and your boat for a spin", she said coldly.

_Kellett Cattle Company  
Holland Valley, Hope County  
Later That Night_

Sergeant Abigail Asher's rented farmhouse was situated on the property of the Kellett Cattle Company on the edge of Hope County's Holland Valley region, a few miles from Fall's End. Kellett Cattle had been a very thriving cattle farm for a long time, but their operations were suspended for a period of time when Project Eden's Gate tried to take over the county and attempted to use the company's property as one of their cult outposts.

Thanks to the efforts of Sheriff Harrison and the Resistance, however, their takeover was short-lived and the Kellett property was re-claimed. Once the property was cleaned up and reorganized, the Kellett family moved to another house elsewhere in Montana, but still rented out their Holland Valley farmhouse as an extra source of income. Sergeant Asher rented the house soon after her arrival to Hope County.

Tonight, with the troopers from the Montana Highway Patrol handling Hope County's calls for the evening and the officers from the Department of Corrections holding things down at the jail, Harrison, Asher, Pratt, Hudson, Xander, and Michaels were finally able to all enjoy a well-deserved evening off. The six of them decided to spend it together at Asher's rented farmhouse and have an impromptu get-together with pizza, beer, and sodas galore. Also present at this shindig were Nick and Kim Rye (with Baby Carmina being babysat at home by Kim's mother), self-trained archer and seasoned environmentalist Jess Black, Pastor Jerome Jeffries, and Mary May Fairgrave, who herself was taking a rare night off from managing the Spread Eagle. However, as Harrison noted, someone seemed to be absent.

"Didn't you say Grace would be here tonight?" Harrison asked Nick Rye, referring to Army veteran and expert sniper Grace Armstrong. Grace had been one of the many Resistance members, along with Nick, Jess, and others, who had helped Harrison fight the cult.

"She just texted me", Nick replied, "She got a flat tire in Fall's End. She said she just has to put the spare tire on her Jeep and she'll be over."

This was apparently one of the very rare occasions Jess Black wasn't wearing her signature dark green cloak or, for that matter, carrying her trusty compound bow. Dressed in a very understated Whitetail State Park t-shirt and camouflage pants, she spoke up from her seat on the living room couch. "I have to tell you, Sheriff", she said to Harrison, "it's great to get out of the woods and hang with you guys like this, but I think I'll pass on the pizza. Give me cooked dear meat any day, you know?" she smiled.

Asher laughed as she stood against the banister of the living room stairway. "No judgement", she said, "when the sheriff and I were cops in Chicago together, pizza was pretty much a major food group."

"Except for that time that Sergeant Mahoney took the whole district out to dinner at that shitty Malaysian restaurant in Irving Park", Harrison chimed in, "What was that place called?"

"'Winds of Penang'", she said before starting to laugh, "Remember when she bet you twenty bucks that you wouldn't eat those fried slugs? And you DID?!"

Asher's odd question seemed to temporarily damper everyone's appetite. "WHAT?" Nick shouted, "FRIED SLUGS?!"

Harrison smirked and nodded to Nick. "Easiest twenty bucks I ever made", he said, "and who knew that something that nasty-looking would taste so good when washed down with a Mai Tai."

The entire room erupted in immense laughter. As he laughed along with everyone, Harrison happened to notice a red dot, like that of a laser sight, appear on Asher's chest. His emotion switched back as suddenly as flipping a light switch. "ABBY!" he yelled as he lunged forward to protect her, "EVERYBODY DOWN!"

Asher's side window facing the farm's garden suddenly erupted in an explosion of glass and wood debris, and rapid rifle fire erupted from outside.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Loose Ends and Honest Conversations (Part 2)**

_Main Street, Fall's End  
15 Minutes Earlier_

"Damn!" Grace Armstrong said under her breath as she fiddled with her lug wrench while trying to secure the spare tire to the driver's side of her grey 1991 Jeep Wrangler. Frustrated, she took a moment to toss her flat original tire into the back of the Jeep. She had originally planned to redeem her damaged tire at the Fall's End Garage, but felt she had no choice given that it was past closing time. She then received a "Where are you?" text message from Nick Rye, to which she promptly replied and quickly explained her predicament.

Grace was finally able to tighten the tire properly and was soon on her way to the Kellett Cattle Company to attend Sergeant Asher's spontaneous gathering. As she made her way up the dirt road on the backside of the Kellett property, she noticed a very suspicious-looking person in some sort of black trench coat who appearing to be running through the farm's garden, which was filled to the brim with Black-Eyed Susan flowers.

This sight was an unlucky but very familiar one to Grace Armstrong. She quickly killed the engine on her Wrangler, leaving the vehicle parked but hidden while enough so that whatever enemy or enemies were on the premises couldn't spot it or her right away. She grabbed her signature AR-CL sniper rifle from the carrying case in the back of the Jeep. She then quickly assembled the weapon and stealthily hustled to the edge of the garden from the left side.

Grace then positioned her rifle on its collapsible buttstock and aimed the green sight beam in the direction of her shadowy enemy. The enemy sniper, most likely a Peggie, had the red sight beam of his own sniper rifle very precisely aimed at the front window that looked into Sergeant Asher's living room. Grace wasted no time in opening fire, the discharged round striking the Peggie sniper on the left side of his neck and piercing his carotid artery.

The force of the initial bullet strike turned the enemy toward Grace, and she was able to lay him down with three more shots to the chest. Unfortunately, a bullet had escaped the enemy sniper's rifle just as Grace's round had made impact with his neck, sending it barreling through the front window of the farmhouse and into the sergeant's living room.

Inside the house, Sergeant Asher, Sheriff Harrison, Jess Black, Pastor Jerome, Nick and Kim Rye, and Deputies Hudson and Pratt all scrambled for cover. Harrison had lunged toward Asher, laying his body over hers and pinning themselves to the wall beside the stairs. Glass from the exploded window showered over them.

"Abby!" Harrison said while anxiously panting for breath as he realized the gunfire had ceased, "Are you okay?"

Asher quickly caught her own breath and looked up to Harrison, nodding affirmatively. "Yeah", she said, "I appreciate you trying to protect me, and I love you for it, Troy, but do me a favor and please get the fuck off me! We've got an asshole to catch!"

The sheriff obliged his sergeant's request and stood to his feet, shaking a plethora of broken glass fragments from the back of his shirt. Asher did the same as the others came out of their own respective cover spots. The sergeant looked to Nick, Kim, Mary May, Jess, and Pastor Jerome. "If you guys aren't armed", she said to the five of them as she removed her own Glock .45 Auto G21 pistol from the holster she had clipped to the back of her jeans, "I suggest you guys hide out in my gun locker until we're able to clear everything outside."

The five of them immediately made a beeline for the farmhouse gun locker, which was basically a closet full of assorted firearms and ammo secured by a lockable bulletproof door thick enough to be a bank vault. Asher unlocked and opened the door, after which they hustled inside and hugged the walls. "Stay here until I come and get you." She quickly shut the door and locked it.

With their guns now out and ready for anything, the six law enforcement officers made their way through Asher's front door and out into the huge farm yard, tactically clearing every visible corner. Asher looked out into the farm's spacious garden of Black-Eyed Susan's and quickly caught sight of the lifeless body barely noticeable in the tall grass, instantaneously noticing the silhouetted figure holding a sniper rifle just feet away.

"Hope County Sheriff's Department!" Asher shouted in a very commanding tone while training her Glock on the figure, "Drop your weapon and put your hands up NOW!"

Just then, Harrison came up beside Asher. "Wait a minute, Abby", he said quietly, "I think I know who that is out there."

The enigmatic figure did as the sergeant had instructed, dropping the sniper rifle beside them and raising their hands in the air. "Grace?" Harrison called out to the figure, "Is that you?"

"Yes!" Grace called back, apparently not even realizing who was addressing her, "Specialist Grace Armstrong, U.S. Army."

Harrison motioned for everyone to lower their guns. "It's okay guys", he said to his team, "She's on our side."

Joey Hudson then stepped forward to address Grace. "Grace!" she called out, "It's Joey Hudson from the Sheriff's Department! We're all here! Just stand up and come out from there slowly, okay?"

Grace then lowered her hands and stood to her feet. She slowly made her way to everyone at the edge of the garden, holding her now collapsed sniper rifle in one arm. "I saw an intruder coming on to the property as I drove up", she explained, "He had a rifle. I figured he was a Peggie, so I guess I did what needed to be done to protect you guys. Are you okay?"

Holstering his handgun, Harrison breathed a great sigh of relief and wrapped Grace in a very indebted hug, a gesture which Grace had to drop her rifle to reciprocate. "We're great", he said, "Thanks to you."

The two broke the embrace and Harrison motioned to Grace. "I suppose you all know Grace Armstrong", he said, "Grace, I don't believe you and Sergeant Asher have formally met."

Asher extended a hand to Grace. "I'm so sorry for the circumstances, Grace", she said humbly, "but it is very nice to meet you all the same, and thank you for protecting us. You can feel free to call me 'Abby' if you'd like."

Grace firmly shook the sergeant's hand. "I was just doing what I've been trained to do, Abby, but you're very welcome."

Harrison looked to Adam Xander. "Adam", he said, "Go to your truck and radio this in, please. We're going to need some backup and an ambulance out here, and despite what just happened, we're going to need to do this by the book."

Xander nodded. "You got it, Sheriff." He turned and hurried over to his parked truck.

Harrison then turned his attention to Asher. "Abby", he said, "Why don't you go back inside and let the others out of that locker? I'd say the situation's pretty secure."

_Spread Eagle Bar  
Fall's End  
1 Hour Later_

With the Montana Highway Patrol, the Medical Examiner's office from neighboring Missoula County, and others now handling the scene at the Kellett Cattle Company property, the ten people involved in the incident decided to calm their frazzled nerves at the Spread Eagle. It was there that Harrison explained all the past events of the last few days to Grace Armstrong to loop her in on the situation.

"So, you guys think that Joseph appointed this Marcie Jean Deveraux to be some sort of weird surrogate for Faith?" Grace asked.

Harrison nodded with regret. "Looks like it", he said, "It was just a strange coincidence that her brother, of all people, gets assigned to investigate when two of my men get into an on-duty shooting with a Peggie."

"Where are Whitehouse and Dodd now?" Grace asked.

"I called them to let them know what happened tonight", Harrison replied, "They'll be here as soon as they can."

"You said that you guys raided the old Wellington place next to Orville Creek", Grace said, "I assume you guys must've found something beneficial there."

Asher, overhearing their conversation, sat down next to Harrison on his side of the table. "All we found", she explained, "Were some letters written to Abel Beaupre, the guy who shot at Whitehorse and Dodd, from Marcie Jean Deveraux. The return address she used was a post office box in Florence, Colorado. The FBI already figured out Marcie Jean's scheme at the Federal Penitentiary there, so it really doesn't add much to our investigation."

Mary May suddenly cut in as she came over to the table. "Sorry to interrupt, Sheriff", she said, "but can I get you guys something to drink?"

"I'll have a cola, please", Harrison replied after taking a moment to think.

Mary May gave the sheriff an intrigued look. "That's odd", she said, "One would think after a scary night like tonight, you'd be wanting something stronger than a cola."

"To be honest", Harrison said, "I'm a recovering alcoholic, honey. I swore off booze two years ago after I realized that it only numbs things. No disrespect to those of you who prefer to drink, I don't mean to be judgmental or preachy, but it's just been my experience that drinking doesn't solve shit."

Mary May nodded. "Understood", she said, "One cola coming up."

"I'll have the same thing, please", Asher said to Mary May.

Mary May raised her hand as she walked back toward the bar, indicating to Asher that her request had been heard.

Staci Pratt and Joey Hudson then came over and sat down at the table on either side of Grace, at which point the veteran combat sniper warmly greeted the two deputies. "Are you guys okay?" Pratt asked.

"I'm all good, Staci", Harrison asked, "thanks."

Pratt then looked to Asher. "Sorry about your house, Sarge", he said with great sincerity, "If there's anything I can do for you, don't be afraid to ask, okay?"

"I appreciate that, Staci", Asher said, "but I think I'm all set for now. I'm going to crash at the King's Hot Springs Hotel for a few days. It's closer to work, anyway."

Hudson then looked to Grace. "How are you holding up, Grace?" she asked.

Grace shrugged her shoulders. "To be honest", she said, "I don't know how I feel yet, Deputy", she said, "It's not the first time I've had to take a life to save others. I do regret having to do it, but when you're in the Army, you sometimes feel like there's no other alternative."

Hudson then reached her hand across the table and placed it on top of Grace's leather-gloved hand. "You saved all our lives", she said with a tone of gratitude, "Keep your head up."

Struck with a very sudden realization, Asher's face went white. Noticing this, Harrison put a hand on her shoulder. "Abby?" he inquired, "are you okay?"

"I think I know what they were looking for", she said.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Augustine's Truth**

_Spread Eagle Bar  
Fall's End, Hope County_

"I think I know what they were looking for", Asher said, her face pale with a shocked, grim feeling of apprehension.

Harrison put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her as he noticed her very palpable change in tone and attitude. "What do you mean, Abby?" he asked.

"The case files", Asher replied as she finally caught her breath, "The 'Baby Augustine' case files from Chicago. I think whoever that was who shot as us believed the case files were somewhere in my house."

The interest was suddenly peaked for everyone else at the table. "Were they even in your house at all, Sarge?" Staci Pratt asked.

Asher shook her head. "No", she replied, "It arrived by mail at the sheriff's office this morning. I didn't want to put it in the evidence locker right away in case the cult tried to storm the jail and sheriff's office complex again."

"So, where did you put it?" Joey Hudson asked.

"You know that gun locker that's in my office at the jail?" Asher asked, "The one that holds the emergency shotguns and long guns to use in case of a crisis situation?"

"Yeah", Harrison said.

"Well", Asher said, "as luck would have it, the bottom shelf of that locker is big enough to hold the box that the files were in, so I hid it in there for safe keeping."

"And the only people that have the keys to that locker are sheriff's department personnel", Harrison realized, "There's no way any Peggie's going to get those from us without a hell of a fight." He smiled. "Nice work, Sergeant", he said.

Asher smiled as Harrison put an arm around her, her attitude now starting to soften.

_Hope County Jail & Sheriff's Office  
Henbane River  
30 Minutes Later_

Sheriff Harrison, along with Deputies Hudson, Pratt, Xander, and Michaels were all standing around the conference table as Asher came through the door carrying the large cardboard file box containing the documents that made up the Chicago Police case file on the "Baby Augustine" investigation from 2011. She placed the box in the center of the large table. Harrison was the first to take the lid off the box, at which point everyone dug in, each person taking a group of documents and meticulously reading over them.

"'Reporting Officers: Detective Troy Harrison and Detective Abigail Asher'", Staci Pratt read out loud as he looked over Harrison and Asher's initial CPD case reports, "I'm sorry, guys, it's just very different having you guys be referred to as 'Detective'. We're so used to you guys being 'Sheriff' and 'Sergeant', you know?"

"Not to Dakota and I, Pratt", Adam Xander chimed in, "Troy was a 'Detective' with us out West for four and a half years, so we're more used to it."

Dakota Michaels took a moment to think. "I know", he said, "God, how many murders did we solve out there? How many bad guys did we take down?"

Harrison scoffed at that. "Those are both very compelling questions, bro", he said to Michaels, "But I think a better question is how many times were we startled out of bed at like one or two o' clock in the morning because someone's time came prematurely or because the door to a crack house needed to be knocked down?"

Asher nodded in agreement. "Cops, man", she said, "We lead crazy lives, put those lives on the line every day to face down bad guys, and the wild thing about it is, most civilians don't have a clue."

Hudson scoffed agreeably. "Ain't that the damn truth?"

DCI Chief Deveraux, along with Agents Hallow and Khalim, soon came through the conference room doors and took seats around the table.

"Hey guys", Asher said, "How's everything going at my house?"

"Well", Deveraux began to explain, "You, Sergeant, have been officially cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident, and that goes for the rest of you guys, too. Your friend Grace Armstrong is giving a statement to the Highway Patrol as we speak, but much like with what happened to Whitehorse and Dodd, I wouldn't sweat it too much."

"Good", Harrison said with a very assertive tone in his voice, "All our lives were saved because of the actions Grace took tonight. I don't think anyone at this table, including you DCI folks, should ever doubt that."

As if by the power of Chief Deveraux's suggestion, the nine law enforcement officers were very startled to see Deputies Kevin Dodd Jr. and Michael Whitehorse entered the conference room.

"Speak of the Devils", Asher said as the two came into the room, "Long time no see, fellas. How are you?"

"Hey Sarge", Dodd replied as Asher wrapped him in a hug, "I'm hanging in there."

Asher then reciprocated her warm gesture with Deputy Whitehorse, being very careful not to aggravate his sore ribs. "Hey Mike", she said to him, "How are you feeling, man?"

"Better and better since we've been away, Sarge", he replied, "It's so good to see you guys again."

"Right back at you both", Harrison said as he shook the two deputies' hands respectively, "Just so you two are aware, any other sheriff would probably give you a tongue lashing for coming back to work before you've been officially cleared for duty."

Whitehorse nodded. "I know my dad would have", he said.

"Agreed", Harrison replied, "But, as I'm sure you've both heard by now, we've all managed to step into a whole new pile of shit thanks to Joseph Seed and the Peggies, so I don't think any of us have time for formalities. Welcome back, guys."

"My dad and I heard about what happened at your house on the scanner", Whitehorse said to Asher, "Kevin picked me up and we headed back here as quickly as we could. I'm really sorry, Sarge."

"Thank you, Mike", Asher replied, "That's very kind of you." She then turned to the DCI team. "Have you guys had any luck identifying that sniper who shot through my window?" she asked.

Agent Hallow regretfully shook his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am", he said, "but no, we haven't yet. The shooter wasn't carrying any form of ID, or even a wallet, for that matter. He was a white male in his late thirties to early forties, about five-foot-ten with brown hair, a bushy beard, and several Eden's Gate symbol tattoos."

Harrison sighed out of pure vexation. "Which is the basic description of every damn Peggie that we've ever encountered", he said, "Yippee, this'll be easy."

"His fingerprints are at the lab now", Agent Khalim chimed in, "but we did find something notable on the ballistics results from his sniper rifle."

"Great", Harrison said, "Let's have it."

"The characteristics from the rifle bullet that the crime scene tech pulled from Sergeant Asher's living room wall matched the characteristics of a bullet that the Medical Examiner pulled out of a deceased Hope County deputy during the second jail siege earlier this summer."

Hudson and Pratt both shot very knowing looks to Sheriff Harrison, realizing exactly what incident and exactly which fallen deputy to which Khalim was referring. "That would be Deputy Chris Shelby", Harrison said, "He was helping me take back the jail from the Peggies, for a second time, mind you. He took a bullet to the head for his troubles. He was a nice guy and a talented deputy who died on my watch because of these pricks."

Asher got out of her chair, went over to Harrison, and put a consoling hand on his shoulder. Harrison reached over and put his hand on hers, looking over to her and giving her a nod of appreciation.

Michael Whitehorse swallowed anxiously as he came to an understanding of his own. "This was the incident where my dad was kidnapped and that Marshal shot Virgil Minkler and then himself, isn't it?" he asked.

Harrison nodded. "Yes Mike, it was", he said, "But, as I'm sure you know, I was able to save your dad from Faith Seed before he was able to…do what she had planned for him to do. I killed Faith myself the next day."

"Wait a minute", Pratt said, "You told us before that the FBI had figured out that this 'Baby Augustine' you guys are looking for is Faith and Joseph's child, right?"

"Yeah", Harrison replied.

"Didn't Earl say something a while ago about finding an old phone and answering machine in the Last Best Resting Place with a message from Faith where she talked about a baby?" Pratt asked.

Harrison's eyes sharpened. "Yes", he said with conviction, "He did. Holy crap, I totally forgot about that."

"Hang on", Asher chimed in, "hang on, guys. I'm a little lost here. The Last Best what?"

"The Last Best Resting Place, Abby", Harrison said, "It's a rundown cemetery way off the beaten path in the woods here in Henbane River. A hundred or so unidentified people are buried there in either ramshackle or unmarked graves."

"And you say Earl Whitehorse found some kind of message from Faith there?" Asher asked.

Pratt nodded. "While Harrison was away", he explained, "We received an anonymous tip that the body of a missing person was buried there. The tip turned out to be bogus, but Earl and I found a phone and answering machine set up in an old shed with a tape still in the machine."

"Oh yeah", Whitehorse said, "Dad told me about that. She was saying something about a baby. Do we still have the tape in evidence?"

"Earl turned the master copy of the tape over to the FBI when they came here in accordance with the Martial Law order", Pratt said.

"But", Harrison said, "Earl told me that made a copy of the tape and put it in a filing cabinet in his office."

"Which is now your office", Asher said, "Is that filing cabinet still there?"

"Yep", Harrison said. He then got up and left the conference room for a moment, crossing to his office down the hall. He unlocked the aforementioned filing cabinet situated in the corner of the office behind his desk and expeditiously rifled through its spacious top drawer. Underneath the numerous case file folders and extra office supplies was a Califone CAS1500 cassette player and recorder that Sheriff Whitehorse had kept for many years, as well as a plastic tape case containing the copy of Faith Seed's recorded message.

Harrison then walked back into the conference room, set the recorder down in the center of the table and inserted the tape. Making sure the machine was at its maximum volume, he pressed the "Play" button. After a few moments of static and white noise, the haunting voice of the late Faith Seed was heard through the player's speaker:

_"__A baby is a sack of screaming, shitting, crying impulses with no personality, no thoughts, no understanding of the world beyond feelings. It has no soul; you have to give it one. The only soul we ever have, we receive from others, and it's from others, we can take it away."_

Realizing the tape was at its end, Harrison quickly pressed the "Stop" button on the cassette player, not wanting to hear another word from that evil bitch.

"You okay Sheriff?" Hudson asked.

Harrison swallowed hard before replying. "Fine Joey", he said, "Thank you. Anyone have any thoughts on this?"

"Seems like she intended for Baby Augustine to die when she left her at the church that night", Asher said, "I guess the real question is, though, what the hell was she doing in Chicago of all places?"

"Denny Donovan and his FBI team were able to shed some light on that", Harrison said, "they subpoenaed the Jessop family's financial records for the last decade. It seems that starting in May of Two-Thousand-Ten, Professor George Jessop wired money once a month to a liquor store in Bronzeville. All the receipts were apparently in the name of Rachel Jessop, Faith's birth name."

"I'm sorry", Pratt cut in, "Bronzeville?"

"It's a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Staci", Asher clarified, "A lot of people wire money to and from out-of-the-way places like liquor stores in order to not be traced to a particular bank or location nearby."

"However," Harrison said, "Them doing that in a specific place like Bronzeville is telltale enough, don't you think? There are a lot of those old gothic gray stone buildings in Bronzeville. Faith and Joseph were probably squatting at one of them for a while, most likely at one near a liquor store."

Meanwhile, Kevin Dodd was skimming through a pile of documents in a file from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services when he came upon something that was apparently so shocking to him that his face very suddenly and noticeably turned white.

"Kevin?" Asher asked, "Are you okay?"

"My sister", his said as the breath was practically sucked from his lungs, "Baby Augustine is my sister."

Stunned, Harrison went over to Dodd and looked over his shoulder. "What the hell do you mean, man?" he asked.

Kevin Dodd's eyes welled up with tears. "It says here that Baby Augustine was put up for adoption at an Illinois orphanage and was legally adopted by a family with a home address in Hope County, Montana", he said, "The names of the adoptive parents are Kevin Dodd Senior and his wife Aubrey. Those are my parents, Sheriff."

Asher's eyes went wide. "Amelia", she said, "Joseph Seed and Marcie Jean Deveraux are looking for Kevin's sister, Amelia."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: Permeation**

_Hope County Jail & Sheriff's Office  
Henbane River_

"Amelia", Asher said with widened and concerned eyes, "Joseph Seed and Marcie Jean Deveraux are looking for Kevin's sister, Amelia."

With that, the eleven law enforcement officers sat around the conference table in a shocked and nearly deadened silence, every single one of them unsure of what to say or do in response to this frightening realization.

Sheriff Harrison finally spoke up after a few stunned moments that seemed eternal to him, needing to take charge of the situation. "Here's the plan", he said, "Our priorities now are, to find and secure the Dodds as soon as we can and escort them to a covert and protected location." He looked to Deputy Kevin Dodd. "If you had to guess", he continued, "Where would your family be tonight, Kevin?"

Still stunned from the revelation about his sister, Dodd collected himself and glanced at his watch. "At this time of night", he replied, "They'd probably be home, Sheriff. Amelia's usual bedtime is in about an hour."

"They live out in Holland Valley, right?" Michael Whitehorse asked.

Dodd nodded. "If you head northeast of Holland Valley Elementary", he replied, "It's a small white house with a bunch of junked cars and furniture out front. My old man likes to bring his work home. Always has."

Harrison nodded himself and looked to DCI agents Hallow and Khalim. "You two", he said, "Go with Kevin out to Holland Valley and pick up his family. Then, I want them taken to the King's Hot Springs Hotel here in Henbane."

"You got it", Hallow said as he and Khalim got up from the table and left the room with Dodd.

Michael Whitehorse spoke up. "What do you need me to do?" he asked Harrison.

"I don't fill entirely comfortable letting you out on the street since your ribs haven't completely healed yet", Harrison said, "So why don't you help out Evan in Dispatch? It'll take some of the pressure off of him, plus they'll be a deputy in house in case the Corrections guys need help at the jail."

A reluctant Whitehorse nodded. "You got it", he said before getting up and leaving the room.

Harrison then turned his attention to Sergeant Asher. "Abby", he said, "I'm going to assign you the responsibility of providing close proximity protection for Amelia and her parents. Set them up in one of the unoccupied rooms at the hotel and don't let them out of your sight for a second, understand? I'll get Corrections to send over a few officers to cover the jail."

"Yes sir", Asher said, "But I'm going to need some backup."

"No worries, kid", Harrison replied reassuringly, "Kevin and the DCI folks will be with you at the hotel. Plus, I'm going to call in a favor and have some people I trust watching the outside perimeter."

"What about us, Troy?" Adam Xander asked.

"I need you and Dakota patrolling Henbane River tonight", Harrison replied, "And keep a close eye on and around the immediate vicinity of the hotel. Just in case something bad goes down, I want you guys nearby to help if needed. I'll get Highway Patrol to handle patrol in Holland Valley."

Asher, Xander, Hudson, Michaels, Asher and Pratt got up and left the conference room, heading out to their respective assignments. Harrison looked to the only other person left in the room besides himself, Chief Deveraux.

"You and I are going to try and figure out where Joseph Seed and your sister are headed", he said to him, "Let's hit the streets."

Deveraux got up and walked with the sheriff out toward his car. "My thinking is that they would try to slip in to Hope County somehow", he said, "One would think that stealing someone's car or airplane would be too convenient."

Harrison nodded in agreement when something dawned on him. "Which means the only way they could come into the county is by water." He keyed his handheld radio mic. "Hope County Alpha One to Dispatch", he said into the radio, "Evan, do you copy, over?"

"Hope County Dispatch to Alpha One", Dispatcher Evan Adams replied through the radio, "Right here, Sheriff. Go ahead, over."

"Hey Evan", Harrison replied into the radio, "Could you check the statewide database and see if anyone within likely driving distance of Hope County reported a boat stolen in the last two to three days? Over."

"Copy your request, sir", Evan said through the radio, "Stand by."

While they waited, Harrison and Deveraux got into the former's car and pulled out of the parking lot. They were about half way down the road from the jail and sheriff's complex when Harrison's radio chirped back to life. "Dispatch to Alpha One", Evan said through the radio, "Sheriff, do you copy, over?"

Harrison grabbed the mic from his car's CB radio and keyed the mic. "Alpha One here", Harrison replied into the radio.

"Be advised", Evan said from the radio, "I found a report filed by the Highway Patrol yesterday evening. It appears that the Wallace family from Bismarck, North Dakota had both their Dodge Ram pickup truck and their Fountain Thirty-Two Thundercat speedboat stolen at gunpoint while they were stopped at a rural rest area near Livingston, Montana. It's a white boat with black-striped trim running along the bottom edge, over."

"Suspect information, over?" Harrison said into the radio.

"Report describes the suspects as being a bald and clean-shaven white male in his early to mid-forties and a white female in her late twenties to early thirties with blonde hair", Evan said through the radio, "and Mary Wallace's statement notes her belief that the female could've very possibly been wearing a wig, over."

"I copy all that, Evan", Harrison replied into the radio, "Put out a statewide alert on both the pickup and the boat. Joseph Seed and his female accomplice were most likely the perpetrators in the Livingston incident and could be on their way to Hope County as we speak. Let all agencies know right away, over."

"Ten-Four, sir", Evan replied through the radio.

"Good job, Evan" Harrison said through the radio, "Harrison out."

The sheriff then tuned his radio to an obscure frequency that wasn't the typical channel for Hope County's law enforcement communications and keyed the mic once again.

"This is Sheriff Troy Harrison of Hope County", Harrison said into the radio, "I'm trying to raise any members of the Resistance. We have a situation developing in our county, ladies and gentlemen, and I need some help. Anyone out there, please copy right away."

_Silver Lake Conservation Area  
Hope County_

Silver Lake Conservation Area was, in actuality, nothing more than an island that sat between the Whitetail Mountains and Henbane River regions of Hope County. The half dozen structures on this federally protected wildlife and forest research zone sat no more than a hundred feet or so from one another. Therefore, everything was accessible either by foot, ATV, or boat.

This picturesque island was home to three buildings that were under the ownership of the United States National Park Service. The most recognizable of these was the island's Ranger Station, a log cabin built in the 1950's by the Catamount Mining Company back when the island was merely an inviting vacation spot prior to becoming a federally protected conservation area. On this particular evening, U.S. Park Ranger Lance Rosales was on duty and keeping watch at the station.

As he had done on so many evenings for the last three years, the 24-year-old attractive Hispanic park ranger would periodically watch the monitors showing the feeds from all the surveillance cameras positioned around the outer perimeter of the station. He always seemed to expect that everything would be all quiet on the Western front, and for many a night during his time there, they had been.

Meanwhile, Lance's colleague Ranger John Williams, stood watch on the deck of the nearby Johnson Lookout Tower, scanning the immediate area with his night vision binoculars. This warm fall evening first appeared to be a peaceful one for the tall and athletic 53-year-old Williams as well. That is, until he heard the sound of an approaching boat. As Williams used his binoculars to scope the approaching vessel making its way to the island's tiny shore, he noted that it was a Fountain 32 Thundercat speedboat that was white with black trim running along the bottom edge.

Williams promptly took his portable radio from the pocket of his dark green work-issued coat and keyed the mic. "Hey Lance", he said into the radio, "Lance? You there?"

Back in the Ranger Station, Lance heard Williams' message and keyed the mic of his own radio, the mic of which was clipped to the lapel of his uniform shirt. "Ten-Four, John", Lance replied into the radio, "I'm right here. What's up, buddy, over?"

Williams, meanwhile, made the decision to hush his voice to a soft whisper for fear of being detected by whomever was on the unidentified boat. "I've got a problem over here, man", Williams said into the radio, "I've got an unknown vessel trying to dock itself on the shoreline over here by the Johnson Lookout Tower." He took a moment to look through his binoculars again before giving more information. "It appears to be occupied by two individuals, one male and one female, over" he continued to explain through the radio.

"Copy that", Lance said through the radio, "I'll signal for backup and head your way, over."

Knowing that his friend and colleague could be in trouble, Lance Rosales pressed a red button on his surveillance console before getting up from his chair and practically running from the Ranger Station. This button activated a silent alarm that registered an emergency signal not only at the local Ranger Headquarters in the Whitetail Mountains, but also at the Hope County Dispatch Center in Henbane River.

Williams stepped down from the lookout tower and swiftly walked toward where the boat had docked. "Excuse me!" Williams called out to the two silhouetted figures disembarking from the boat, "U.S. Park Ranger! You're not allowed to dock your boat here! This is a federally protected conservation area…"

Whatever John Williams was going to say next was suddenly cut short by the sound of a gunshot ringing out. Williams suddenly felt a heavy pain and his chest that was so jarring, he fell backwards onto the ground.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: They Never Left**

_Silver Lake Conservation Area  
Hope County_

Ranger John Williams groaned in pain as he laid on the ground, having apparently been shot by one of the two intruders trying to make their way onto the island home of Hope County's Silver Lake Conservation Area. The two intruders had apparently made their way from the illegally docked stolen boat to elsewhere on the island. At this very moment, however, all John Williams could think about was how much his chest was hurting.

Williams took a moment to open his U.S. Park Ranger uniform shirt and check the bulletproof vest he was wearing underneath after sliding behind a nearby tree for cover. Luckily, the .38 caliber bullet that the intruder had fired at him had struck the metal plate of the vest and not the park ranger's actual chest underneath. Once the adrenaline depleted a bit, he scrambled and grabbed his portable radio off his hip and keyed the mic for dear life.

"L…Lance", Williams hoarsely groaned into the radio.

Having heard the gunshot ring out from a distance by this point, Ranger Lance Rosales was now running in a full sprint toward the location of his colleague and friend. He keyed the mic of his own radio. "I'm coming, buddy" he said into the radio, "hang on, man!"

Lance Rosales arrived at the Johnson Lookout Tower within two minutes. He shined his flashlight at all the trees in the visible area. "John!" He called out, his tone urgent but still discreet enough as not to alert whatever suspect or suspects were in close proximity.

A now relieved John Williams stuck his hand up, which Lance immediately noticed. "I'm here, Lance!" Williams managed to call out, "I'm hit, but the round hit the plate on my vest."

Lance hustled to his wounded friend, who was still propped up against the tree. "Holy shit!" Lance exclaimed as he knelt to Williams and eyed the bullet caught in his vest, "Can you walk, bud?"

Williams tried to get his feet underneath him, but his chest pain from the bullet's impact was too tender at the moment, causing him to grunt in pain and frustration. "I don't think I can right now, man", he said.

For a short minute, Lance was at a loss as to what to do next. An idea suddenly dawned on him and he put Williams' arm over his own shoulder, very carefully helping him up and guiding him over to the lookout tower's shabby wooden stairs.

"Where are we going?" Williams asked as Lance very tenderly started helping him up the stairs.

"The M133 is in the gun box in the tower", Lance replied as he helped Williams get inside the tower. The M133 was a silver-plated pump action shotgun that the Rangers kept secured in a tactical gun box inside the lookout tower to have on hand just in case they encountered some sort of unfavorable situation.

John Williams groaned in an aching pain once again as Lance helped his partner get seated in a small brown wooden chair in front of a large folding table, where he could rest for a few fleeting moments.

Lance Rosales then took a set of keys from the back pocket of his blue jeans. Once he found the specific key, he unlocked the large black steel gun box, removing the M133 shotgun and six shells from inside. He loaded the shells into the shotgun's chamber and aimed it out one of the tower's windows, all of which had lost their glass panes some time ago.

John Williams then struggled to draw his own sidearm, a 9X19 millimeter Glock G17 pistol, from the brown leather shoulder holster on his left side. Although his chest pain made it difficult for him to move as fluidly as he was used to, he managed to release the gun's safety with a loud click. Startled by the sudden noise, Lance turned his head to his partner, holding the shotgun upward, and noticing his partner with the gun made him give Williams a sly smile.

"Hey kid", Williams said with his hoarse and pained groan, "My chest may be hurting like a bastard right now, but I'll be damned if I let these fuckheads get us first."

Down on the ground level, meanwhile, Joseph "The Father" Seed and his paramour, Marcie Jean Deveraux, were met by what appeared to be a dozen additional members of their Project Eden's Gate cult. They had all made their way onto the conservation area by way of their own boats and ATV's, and as such, they all congregated in a clearing outside the island's Central Radio Tower.

The dozen Peggies all sat down in the clearing in a circular formation and waited as The Father and Marcie Jean stepped into the center of it to speak.

"Brothers and Sisters", Seed began in a very arrogant and self-assured tone, "As many of you may already be aware, the sinners of Hope County, Montana have managed to regain control of this area recently. Approximately thirty-five of our righteous brothers and sisters have lost their lives at the hands of false authoritarians such as the FBI, the Montana National Guard, and especially the new Hope County Sheriff, Mister Troy Harrison and his aberrant band of haughty sinners. Also, seven additional brothers and sisters are now prisoners in this war against these toxic naysayers of ours, and luckily, thanks to our sister Marcie Jean, I didn't have to remain one for very long."

Marcie Jean then stepped to Joseph's side to continue the speech. "This is why The Father and I have called you all back to Hope County tonight", she said, "The time has come to strike back once again against these sinners. Earlier this year, they thought they took down a massive beehive, yet I doubt they can take down the king and queen."

"Or for that matter", Seed cut in, "the efforts of you, our loyal worker bees. Have any of you been able to gather any reliable intelligence on Sheriff Harrison or any of his allies? We are already aware that some of our brothers and sisters have been keeping a close watch on some of the deputies' family members and other weak points. What progress have we made with that effort?"

One of the cult's longest-serving members, Brother Matthew, raised a hand. "We have an insider within the ranks of the Chicago Police Department, Father" he said, "He reported to me that the case file pertaining to your daughter was sent to Sergeant Asher at the Sheriff's Office. We believed she kept the case file at her home, so we sent Brother David to silence Asher and acquire the file if possible."

"Was he successful in his assignment?" Seed asked.

Brother Matthew regretfully bowed his head, as if in mourning. "I'm afraid not, Father", he replied, "One of the members of the Resistance was present at Sergeant Asher's home that night, armed with a rifle. She killed Brother David before he could carry out his objectives. Sheriff Harrison and the other deputies were also there, making the acquisition of the file an essentially impossible task."

Joseph Seed sighed very deeply at the news of another fallen disciple. "Are we any closer to finding my baby girl?" he asked.

"We're doing the best we can, Father" Marcie Jean said, "but her adoptive family has taken very meticulous measures to keep her identity and location under wraps. However, we do have two of our brothers running down a viable lead as we speak."

_Hollyhock Saloon  
Henbane River_

Meanwhile, after getting back in contact with Special Agent Dennis "Denny" Donovan and his FBI team, Sheriff Harrison and DCI Chief Deveraux agreed to meet them in the parking lot of the Hollyhock Saloon, another one of Hope County's frequented watering holes in the Henbane River region. The saloon's driveway was an unpaved dirt lot covered in various vehicle tracks and boot prints, mostly from the various bikers and their beloved "Hogs" that were known to patronize the saloon every night. Harrison and Deveraux arrived ahead of the FBI and were seated beside each other on the trunk of the former's Dodge Charger.

"So", Deveraux said, "You said you and Agent Donovan used to work together at the FBI, right?"

"Yep", Harrison said, "Pretty much from day one. We were in the same New Agent Trainee class at the FBI Academy, then we worked together in the Bureau's Seattle office for two years after we graduated. We lost touch after I was reassigned back to Quantico to run a task force with my cousin."

Deveraux nodded with interest. "Your cousin was an agent too, huh?" he asked

"His name is Bill", Harrison said, "I recruited him after he spent a few years doing covert intelligence work with another agency. He and I ended up running a two-man organized and serial crime task force together for about five years. We went all over the country. Sometimes, we even went overseas when foreign agencies needed our help."

"Cool", Deveraux said, "If I may ask, Troy, why did you leave the FBI, anyway? By the way you've been talking, you seemed to have been very comfortable there."

Harrison shrugged his shoulders. "Well", he said, "I guess you can say that the pieces fell out of place after a while. It started when Bill and his girlfriend found out they were expecting their first child. Due to his prior intelligence work before joining the Bureau, he qualified for a government severance package and a decent partial penchant. He retired early and decided to move to New Hampshire to be a dad full-time."

"I take it without him there", Deveraux said, "it just didn't feel right for you."

"Well yes", Harrison replied, "but then, the powers that be decided to redirect our task force funding toward the Bureau's counterterrorism units, so I decided to pack up our cases, distribute them to other units, and resign. But it ended up being a blessing in disguise because our Deputy Director clued me in about the Chicago PD position that I ended up taking."

Their conversation was soon interrupted by Dispatcher Evan Adams' voice over the radio. "Hope County Dispatch to any units in the vicinity of Henbane River", Evan said, "We have a received a signal indicating a Code Ten-Ninety at the Silver Lake Conservation Area."

A confused Harrison keyed his radio mic. "Hope County Alpha One to Dispatch", he said into the radio, "Could you please repeat the radio code, over?"

"Ten-Four Sheriff", Evan replied from the radio, "There's a Ten-Ninety at the Silver Lake Conservation Area. Be advised, apparently the silent emergency alarm at the Ranger Station was activated, but neither I nor the Park Ranger dispatchers have been able to get a radio response from either of the rangers who're supposed to be there, over."

"Copy that, Evan", Harrison replied into the mic, "Be advised, Chief Deveraux and I will be responding momentarily. Please advise Ranger Headquarters that we will be in route to assist with the FBI. FBI agent Donovan and an FBI SWAT team are meeting us at our current ten-twenty very shortly, over."

As if by the power of the sheriff's suggestion, a large armored personnel vehicle rolled into the saloon parking lot with "FBI" stenciled on its sides in huge white lettering. FBI Special Agent Dennis "Denny" Donovan emerged from the back of the vehicle, along with a platoon's worth of burly, athletic FBI SWAT agents all decked out in protective tactical gear.

"Thank you all for coming", Harrison said as he addressed the group, "My name is Sheriff Troy Harrison and I represent Hope County, Montana." He motioned to Chief Deveraux. "This fine gentleman here is Chief Noah Deveraux from the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation. We'll have to keep the formalities short tonight, fellas, because we have a developing situation at the Silver Lake Conservation Area nearby."

SWAT leader Agent Randall Hicks spoke up. "What's the situation?" he asked.

"The exact nature of the situation isn't entirely known at the moment", Harrison replied, "Agent…"

"Hicks", Hicks clarified.

"Agent Hicks", Harrison repeated, "All we know is that the silent alarm at the area's Ranger Station was activated and no one's been able to get a response from either of the two United States Park Rangers who are assigned there. Prior to that, the local Park Ranger Headquarters reported radio traffic from the two Rangers describing an unauthorized vessel and two intruders attempting to make their way onto the conservation area."

Agent Donovan then stepped to the front beside Harrison to continue the briefing. "Because the Silver Lake Conservation Area is a federally protected zone, we have primary jurisdiction. Sheriff, Chief, you are hereby deputized to assist."

Harrison and Deveraux nodded accordingly. "Understood", Harrison replied, "One major thing you guys should know is that the only vehicle accessible road onto the area is a small, narrow dirt road about half a mile from here."

One of the agents in the back of the group, Agent Brown, opened a trailer attached to the armored SWAT truck and rolled out three four-wheeled ATV's. "We read the map on the way up here, Sheriff" he said, "We've got it covered."

Harrison smiled widely, as did Deveraux, impressed at the team's thoughtful planning and foresight.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: Coming Your Way**

_Silver Lake Conservation Area  
Hope County_

Sheriff Harrison, Chief Noah Deveraux, FBI agent Dennis "Denny" Donovan, and Donovan's accompanying FBI SWAT team stealthily inched up the narrowly small dirt access road that lead from Hope County's Henbane River region and on to the Silver Lake Conservation Area, a federally protected island that they suspected was being intruded on by members of the Project Eden's Gate cult. Due to the road being so slender, they had no choice but to ride in a caravan of ATVs that the SWAT team had provided.

Sheriff Harrison lead the group with Chief Deveraux riding on the back of his ATV. Following the pair was Agent Donovan and his SWAT leader, Agent Hicks. The remaining SWAT team members rode in pairs via a trio of ATVs behind them. The crew came around a very sharp corner and had a visual on the Johnson Lookout Tower, where it was believed the two stranded park rangers were taking shelter from the intruders.

Harrison and Deveraux dismounted from their ATV, at which point Harrison briefly raised his left hand up in the air to communicate to the others behind them that they were stopping and that they should do the same. As such, Donovan, Hicks and the SWAT team followed suit and dismounted from their own vehicles as silently as they could, covertly donning their tactical gear and readying their weapons. Donovan came up beside them.

"What's the plan, boys?" Donovan asked in a whisper.

Chief Deveraux smirked. "That's different", he said, "the FBI asking the local sheriff what the game plan is."

"As you know", Harrison said, "I'm ex-FBI, Noah. I know exactly how these guys work, and I've gotten to know the area around here pretty well." He produced a pair of night vision binoculars from his pocket. Scanning the area around the Lookout Tower, he noted the presence of two unidentified males with assault rifles slung around their shoulders. He then lowered the binoculars and turned back to Donovan.

"Two armed white males with weapons on either side of the tower entrance", Harrison whispered, "I say Noah and I move up and deal with them while you and Hicks cover us and try to secure everything. Then, we send two guys inside the tower to clear it and save the rangers if they're in there."

Donovan nodded as he double-checked his tactical vest and pulled on his navy-blue FBI raid jacket. He crossed over to Hicks and the SWAT team, telling them of Harrison's proposed plan. They then assembled in a single-file tactical formation with Hicks at the forefront. Harrison and Deveraux readied themselves just a few feet away.

A few minutes later, the group was ready to move. Hicks held up a gloved hand, counting down with his fingers to indicate to the others that the time to move in was imminent. A forward-pointing motion with the same hand indicated that it was time for everybody to move in, and as such, everyone stealthily started to creep up on the Johnson Lookout Tower.

Harrison quickly withdrew his sidearm from his holster, aiming his Sig-Sauer P-226 handgun at the first impromptu Peggie guard. "Sheriff's Office!" he called out, "Drop the weapon!"

The guard snapped into action as he noticed Harrison and Deveraux coming their way. "Sinners!" he shouted, "cull the heard!" He raised his AR-C assault rifle in Harrison's direction. Before anything could happen, however, a loud blast of shotgun fire rang out, followed by the sound of wooden boards exploding. The sheriff's would-be assassin fell sideways, dead, after apparently being blasted in the left side of his temple by a shotgun that apparently had been fired from inside the lookout tower.

In the instant that it took the other ad hoc guard to mentally process what had just happened to his cohort, Chief Deveraux took the opportunity to knock the man down with a kick to the chest. The second guard hit the ground and was immediately met by Deveraux aiming his Smith and Wesson M&P M20 pistol in his face.

"Don't even try anything, boy" Deveraux sternly said to the man, "My daddy raised me with guns, so I'm a pristine shot. Now, roll over on your belly and put your hands behind your back."

The defeated Peggie guard felt he had no choice but to submit to the Chief's demands, so he did just as he was told, at which point Deveraux placed him in handcuffs. Two of the FBI SWAT agents scooped the man off the ground and swiftly took him out of there.

"Who's out there, goddamn it?!" Lance Rosales called out from inside the tower.

"This is Sheriff Troy Harrison from the Hope County Sheriff's Office!" Harrison replied while still maintaining his cover position behind a rock across from the blasted-out tower window, "Identify yourself!"

"Ranger Lance Rosales!" Lance called back, "United States Park Service! I have an injured ranger in here who needs medical attention!"

Harrison holstered his gun and hustled over to the blown-out window. Peering inside, he saw Lance still holding the shotgun as if he was ready to shoot another enemy. Wounded Ranger John Williams was still sitting in the chair in which his partner had placed him, still holding his own gun for dear life. "Jesus", Harrison said, "I think you just saved your own lives as well as ours, Mister Rosales. Well done."

"Thank you", Lance replied as he put the shotgun down.

The sheriff then eyed Williams. "Hey John", he said, "Is that you, buddy?"

"Yeah, Sheriff" Williams said with a pained groan, "Some Peggie asshole shot me in the vest. I think I broke a couple of ribs."

"Okay bud", Harrison replied, "No worries. I'm here with an FBI SWAT team that's going to get you guys to safety."

Denny Donovan and a pair of FBI SWAT agents took the hint and quickly headed into the tower. They swiftly but carefully picked Williams up and carried him out, Lance hurrying behind them. As they headed back toward the access road, Harrison noticed something.

"Hey Lance?" he asked.

Lance stopped and turned to him. "Yeah, Sheriff?" he replied.

"Didn't you guys report seeing an unauthorized boat docking by the tower here?" he asked.

Lance nodded. "I didn't see it personally", he clarified, "John was the first to see it. He radioed me and I was making my way over to me when the gunshot rang out."

Harrison pointed over to the now unoccupied shoreline. "Then where's the boat?" He pointedly asked.

"Shit!" Harrison said under his breath. "Denny!" He called out to Agent Donovan.

Donovan turned around and faced Harrison. "What's up?"

"We need to get to the King's Hot Springs Hotel", Harrison replied in a very fearful tone, "I think Joseph Seed and the other Peggies are trying to make a break for it and snatch his daughter. That's where she's under guard with my Sergeant and Noah's agents."

"How would they know exactly where the girl would be?" Donovan asked.

"I have no idea how they know, man", Harrison said, "Maybe they somehow broke in to our radio communications or something. Since Whitehorse was shot and you informed us of Seed's escape, we've kept any chatter related to Eden's Gate or the Baby Augustine case off of our main sheriff's channel. Anything about that stays on our secure tactical frequency."

Agent Donovan turned to his SWAT agents and addressed them. "Listen up", he said, "Rivers! Rodriguez! I want you two to bring Rangers Williams and Rosales to the Hope County Clinic for treatment. The rest of us are going to the King's Hot Springs Hotel. The Sheriff has a very strong hunch that Joseph Seed and the other cult members are headed there. Let's go!"

_King's Hot Springs Hotel  
Henbane River_

The Henbane River Region's King's Hot Springs Hotel was a two-story stone building that appeared to be much larger than it actually was. This very gothic and imposingly foreboding cathedral-like building had gained a lot of notoriety among Hope County locals thanks to a very real tragedy that had once occurred there. On May 12, 1902, the hotel was partially destroyed in a landslide that resulted in the deaths of 16 people. What made this legend particularly sinister, however, was that the bodies of the 16 unfortunate souls who perished were never found. Pretty much everyone in Hope County believed that the hotel was haunted ever since.

On this night however, Sergeant Asher was busy tucking young Amelia Dodd into bed in Room 301, while her parents were getting ready for bed themselves in the room next door.

"Abby?" Amelia asked.

"Yeah, sweetie?" Asher replied as she pulled the bedspread up around Amelia's waist.

"Why did Kevin and those other people have to come and get us?" she asked, "why did we have to leave our house so quickly?"

Being not as experienced with children in her own life, Asher was at first unsure of how to explain the situation. "Well kiddo", she finally said, "Some bad things happened near your house earlier tonight, so Sheriff Harrison and I had Kevin and those two agents come get you and your mom and dad. We brought you here so we could make sure you were as safe as possible."

Comforted by the sentiment, Amelia gave a charming smile, showing the two teeth she had recently lost. "Thanks!" she said sweetly, reaching her arms out for a hug.

Asher gladly obliged, warmly hugging the girl. "You're so welcome, sweetheart!" she replied tenderly, "But now, you have to get some rest and we'll sort everything out tomorrow morning."

Amelia broke the embrace and settled into the bed, turning onto her side and drifting off to sleep. Asher quietly slipped out of the room, shutting the door as discreetly as she could and taking one more look at the sleeping child through the window in the door.

The sergeant was headed back downstairs when she was met by Deputy Kevin Dodd at the landing. "How's my sister?" he asked.

"She just fell asleep", Asher told him, "She's a great kid, Kev, you should be very proud."

Dodd smiled for a moment and sighed deeply. "Yeah we are", he said, "but right now hers and my parents' safety is my main concern."

Asher nodded. "I hear you, bud", she replied, "That's why we're all here. Harrison, Deveraux, and the Feds are working to find Joseph Seed, Marcie Jean Deveraux, and those other Peggie shitheads. All we have to do is camp out here and keep law and order for now."

A loud set of knocks were heard on the hotel's front double doors. Asher and Dodd hurried downstairs. Dodd hid in the corner just beside the doors, clutching the grip of his still-holstered handgun for dear life. Likewise, Asher gripped her own gun, ready for anything.

"Who's there?" Asher called out in a very commanding tone.

"Jen Ambrose", a female voice replied from the opposite side of the door, "I'm here with Amy and Jessie Frye. We're with the Resistance. Sheriff Harrison called us and told us you'd be here. We're here to help."

Asher looked to Dodd, who nodded approvingly. She took her hand off the grip of her gun and pulled open the door. The two of them were greeted by the sight of Resistance member Jen Ambrose and twin siblings Amy and Jessie Frye standing on the hotel's front porch. Boomer, a wiry Australian Cattle Dog, dutifully sat between the trio, anxiously panting.

Jen Ambrose was a short but athletically built white woman in her mid-thirties. She wore a camouflage-print American flag baseball cap. Her brown t-shirt also sported the Stars and Stripes. "Sergeant Asher, right?" she inquired.

"Yes", Asher replied, "Please come on in." She pulled the door further open and stood aside, allowing them inside.

The three Resistance members and Boomer made their way inside the lobby of the hotel. "Jen Ambrose", Jen said, extending a hand to Asher.

Asher firmly shook her hand. "I apologize for the circumstances", "But it's nice to meet you."

Jen then motioned to Amy and Jessie Frye. Amy was a tall well-built black woman in her early thirties, and her identical twin brother Jessie was of almost equal height and build. Their attire was similar to Jen's with American flags galore. "This is Amy Frye", Jen said.

"Hello", Amy said before motioning to her brother, "This is my twin brother, Jessie."

Jessie nodded respectfully. "I hope we can help, Sergeant."

Asher was then surprised to find Boomer curiously sniffing her boots and pant legs. "And who's this handsome boy?" She asked, enamored by the dog.

Jen smiled. "This is Boomer", she said, "He was orphaned after the Peggies killed his owners. After Sheriff Harrison fought them off and rescued him, I decided to adopt him myself, so he goes wherever I go."

Asher chuckled and pet Boomer's head. "I see", she said, "Well, it's nice to meet you too, there, Boomer."

This warm moment was soon interrupted the chirping of Asher's radio as a transmission came in. "Hope County Alpha One to Hope County Four-Two-Six", Harrison said from the radio, "Abby, do you copy?"

"Excuse me", Asher said before grabbing her radio off her belt and keying the mic. "Four-Two-Six to Alpha One", she said into the radio, "I copy, Troy. Go ahead."

"Abby", Harrison replied through the radio, "Be advised, we think that the Peggies on their way to you as we speak. Guard all entrances and exits and keep weapons at the ready. I'm on the way to you now with Deveraux, Donovan, and FBI SWAT. It'll take a bit to get there, so just be ready."

_[Author's Note: We're getting down to wire here, folks! Just a heads up, this story will feature a pretty sizeable finale, which I'm assuming will take me a while to put together, and I plan to include a small epilogue at the tail end that will tie up whatever loose ends that are left. Thank you so very, very much to all of you readers and followers, and especially those of you who have favorited me and this story. I'm just getting started on here, people, and it's thanks to you that I have the desire to keep things up for the future. Thanks again!] _


	19. Finale

**Respite Finale: Lucifer's Hot Spring**

_King's Hot Springs Hotel  
Henbane River_

After receiving an urgent message from Sheriff Harrison which warned them that cult leader Joseph Seed, his herald Marcie Jean Deveraux, and other members of the Project Eden's Gate cult were on their way to their designated safe house at the King's Hot Springs Hotel, Sergeant Asher, Deputy Kevin Dodd Jr., and DCI agents Hallow and Khalim immediately sprang into action. Luckily, Resistance members Jen Ambrose, Amy and Jessie Frye, and Jen's adopted Australian Cattle Dog, Boomer, had arrived at the hotel to assist them in protecting young Amelia Dodd and her parents, Kevin Dodd Sr. and his wife, Aubrey.

Deputy Dodd secured the front double doors of the hotel and immediately hurried around securing every other entrance on the first floor of the stately, dreary building. Asher checked on the sleeping Amelia once again and found her still asleep and undisturbed in her room. As she went to head back downstairs, Aubrey and Kevin Dodd Sr. appeared in the open doorway of their adjacent room, dressed in their pajamas.

"Sergeant?" Aubrey asked in a whisper, "What's going on?"

Asher put up an assuring hand. "We have a developing situation here, Aubrey", she said, "but all you guys need to know right now is that Amelia's safe. She's still asleep."

"Should we be in there with her?" Kevin Dodd Sr. asked.

Asher nodded. "If that would make you feel better, Mister Dodd", she said, "but I need you guys to stay away from the windows for the time being, for safety's sake."

The Dodds quietly went into Amelia's room to look after her, while Asher headed back downstairs. She went into the hotel's restaurant on the first floor and found it empty with seemingly nothing out of sorts. Crossing through the large kitchen next to the restaurant, Asher went to shut and lock the rear entrance door.

The Sergeant was in the process of reaching her hand halfway out the door to shut it when she was surprised by a woman holding a silver-plated .38 Special revolver. She gasped in shock as she hurriedly stepped back inside the kitchen.

"Sergeant Abigail Asher, I presume?" Marcie Jean asked, "You're shorter than I envisioned you to be." She gave the Sergeant a creepily macabre smile that sent chills down Asher's spine.

Swallowing whatever shock that she still had within her, Asher returned to her normally hard-edged personality, crossing her arms and sighing deeply. "Well, well, well", she said, "Marcie Jean Deveraux. I recognize you from all the FBI's wanted posters. I guess you already know you and your big daddy Joseph Seed are wanted in two states for murder and escape."

Marcie Jean chuckled. "Who it is that wants us is irrelevant to us, Sergeant. What the Father and I want is most relevant. Where's his daughter?" She clicked back the hammer on the revolver.

"The sheriff and I had her brought to a safe house outside Hope County", Asher said in a contrived lie, "Once we heard you helped Joseph fly the coop, we figured that it was the best option."

Marcie Jean's creepy smile held its place as she chuckled once again, slowly stepping closer and closer to Asher with the revolver still in her hand. "You're lying", she said, "but honestly I'm not surprised given what we've come to understand about your unfortunate past. Was it fun for a skilled Narcotics detective of your caliber to be promoted, only to be exiled to answer phones and take complaints at the Chicago Police Headquarters?"

Asher breathed deeply through her nose, trying to contain the anger rising up inside her. "I put my health and sobriety at risk to take down scumbags who manufactured drugs that make addicts out of babies before they're even born", she said in a stoically confident tone, "the things I did may have been unorthodox, but I don't regret the results it produced. Ten convictions in two years."

At that same moment, Deputy Dodd and Jen Ambrose were making their way through the restaurant to find Asher. Boomer was tagging along behind them, only to sniff the air and dart ahead of the pair when he sensed that something was amiss.

"Sarge?" a confused Dodd called into the kitchen.

Asher welcomed the momentary distraction, seizing the opportunity to grab for Marcie Jean's revolver and fighting to gain control of the weapon. "KEVIN!" she hollered back as the two women began furiously quarreling over the revolver, "PROTECT YOUR FAMILY! THE FUCKING PEGGIES ARE HERE!"

A determined Kevin Dodd Jr. immediately did as his Sergeant had instructed and sprinted for the second floor while Jen Ambrose and Boomer charged inside the kitchen. Jen almost instantaneously had her AR-C assault rifle cocked and at the ready, while Boomer stood beside his owner and growled menacingly at Marcie Jean.

"I suggest you let my new friend the Sergeant go, little lady", Jen commanded in a very bold and self-assured tone, "or I swear to all that I find holy that this trusty assault rifle of mine will splatter your crazy ass all over this nice kitchen!"

The clash between Marcie Jean and Asher was suddenly halted when the former gave Jen one of her now infamously ghoulish smiles. "Fine", she said, "You two sinning tramps deserve each other!" Asher was suddenly thrust backwards with a rough shove from Marcie Jean. The sergeant soon collided with Jen and Boomer, and Marcie Jean ran out of the room toward the lobby under cover of the turmoil.

Asher rolled over on to her stomach, using one hand to draw her Glock .45 Auto G21 pistol from its holster and fired a few shots in the direction of the open doorway into the dining room.

"Shit!" she exclaimed once she realized that she had missed the opportunity to take down Marcie Jean. She turned her attention to Jen, who groaned deeply, having had the wind knocked out of her.

"Are you okay?" Asher asked.

Jen coughed while Boomer licked her face out of affectionate concern. "Y-yeah", she replied once she'd caught her breath back, only to chuckle. "Damn girl", she said, "what are you? Five-foot-three inches of human concrete?"

Asher chuckled herself and smiled for a moment before Jen helped her to stand back up. "Thanks", she said as she drew her Glock once again. The two of them, along with Boomer, then headed back through the adjoining dining room and toward the lobby.

Outside the hotel, meanwhile, Joseph Seed and the additional members of Project Eden's Gate covertly made their way onto the hotel's property by way of the rocky hot spring that was the literal namesake for the hotel.

"So, you believe that your daughter's in there, Father?" Brother Matthew asked as he stepped quietly down the rocks beside the slow-moving waterfall that lead to the pool of the hot spring.

"I just hope that your source tailed them to the right location", Joseph said.

Down below at ground level, the FBI SWAT truck containing Sheriff Harrison, Chief Deveraux, Agent Donovan, and the FBI SWAT agents unobtrusively rolled into the hotel's driveway. Joseph and Brother Matthew accordingly took note of this.

"What do you want us to do?" Brother Matthew asked.

"Hold the rest of them back as best as you can", Joseph said, "Marcie Jean's taking care of Sergeant Asher and whatever other sinners she has inside with her. I'll take care of Harrison. He's going to wish he had fought me when he had the chance."

Back inside the hotel, Asher and Jen reached the second-floor landing of the stairs to find Marcie Jean making her way to the now locked door of Room 301, where Amelia Dodd and her frightened parents were hiding. As such, Asher bolted for the cult member and aggressively grabbed her from behind by her hair.

"Where the hell do you think you're going, crazy bitch?!" Asher snarled as she dragged the deranged woman backwards toward the hotel bar.

"Give it up, Sergeant!" Marcie Jean said in between groans of pain, "That little girl belongs to the Father, not you!"

A frustrated Asher slammed Marcie Jean face down against the wooden bar top, forcing the demented woman's hands behind her back and reaching for her handcuffs.

"You got this, Sarge?" Jen asked, her rifle trained on Marcie Jean.

Asher looked back over her shoulder at Jen. "Yeah", she replied, "I'm good. Harrison and the others should be outside by now. Go give them a hand and I'll be down in a few minutes."

Once Jen was down the stairs and out of her eyeshot, Asher continued trying to detain Marcie Jean. "Now", Asher said as she snapped the handcuff on to her left wrist, "Where were we?"

Suddenly, Marcie Jean forced her uncuffed right elbow hard into Asher's stomach. The Sergeant instinctively doubled back in pain as the cult member spun back around, facing her. "I don't know", Marcie Jean said in a maniacally cold tone, "Why don't you tell me? "She looked Asher dead in the face as the latter tried to get her breath back. "Oh", she taunted, "You can't exactly form a coherent sentence at the moment, can you?"

Marcie Jean then stepped back a few paces before balling her still-handcuffed left hand into a fist and went to throw a punch in Asher's direction. Before her opponent could throw and/or land her intended punch, however, Asher was somehow able to gather all the vigor that she had inside her and charged headfirst at the crazed woman as if she were a determined football player aiming for a tackle, colliding fiercely with Marcie Jean's chest and propelling the both of them over the bar and into a display of beer and liquor bottles that had been set up on the back wall.

Both of the quarreling women were instantly showered in a combined plethora of shattered glass bottle particles and whatever alcoholic liquids that had once been inside those now mostly broken bottles. To Asher's relief, Marcie Jean now appeared to be badly dazed, having apparently struck the back of her head on one of the back wall's wooden bottle display shelves.

As such, the angry Sergeant rolled the somewhat incapacitated cultist onto her stomach and secured the second handcuff ring onto her right wrist. "I'd call that a fucking sack tackle, wouldn't you?" Asher said with a decompressing sigh as she yanked Marcie Jean up onto her feet. "Now", Asher continued, "If I could please do my damn job now. Marcie Jean Deveraux, you're under arrest for the murders of Erika Marsden and Jason Brookfield, aiding and abetting the escape of a convicted felon, assaulting a law enforcement officer, and resisting arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…"

The door to Room 301 then opened up. Deputy Dodd and his family peered out the open doorway. "Everything okay, Sarge?" the deputy asked.

Asher held up a guarded hand as the Dodds started to make their way out of the room. "Stay in there", she said sternly, "Everything's under control, Kev. I just don't want your sister to see this." She then walked toward the stairs with the now completely handcuffed Marcie Jean in tow.

Meanwhile, a major gunfight was in progress outside the hotel. Essentially everyone that had helped to fight Project Eden's Gate up to this point was involved including Sheriff Harrison, Chief Deveraux, Agent Donovan, DCI agents Hallow and Khalim, and the FBI SWAT team. Jen Ambrose had found her way into the fray as she snuck up beside the sheriff and began laying down cover fire with her assault rifle.

"Fancy meeting you here, Jen", Harrison said, having to holler over the sounds of the incessant gunfire being exchanged.

"Hey Sheriff", Jen replied as she took a moment to hold her fire, "Everything inside the hotel seems to be right as rain. Your Sergeant had that crazy Peggie bitch pretty much under control upstairs. She told me to come out here and help you guys out."

"Where are they now?" A now very concerned Harrison asked.

"They should be on their way out now", Jen replied, "Maybe it's just me, but I don't think this is exactly the safest time for you guys to be hauling out a handcuffed prisoner, you know?"

Harrison laughed at that and hurriedly rushed toward the hotel's open back door while crouching to help Asher handle Marcie Jean while Jen resumed firing at the cult members. As he made it through the doorway into the kitchen, he rose to an upright stand as he suddenly felt what he knew was the barrel of a handgun being pressed against the center of his back.

"Try anything crazy and you die…Sheriff…" A hauntingly familiar voice said to Harrison.

Though very much frightened on the inside, Harrison managed to chuckle and even muster a sardonic half smile. "Hello Joseph", he said, "I thought the next time that the other deputies and I would ever see you again would be at your murder trial for killing our mayor, our fellow deputy, and countless others."

"They were sinners", Joseph "The Father" Seed said with a very defined rasp in his voice, "You all are sinners. I refuse to have my daughter be brought up by sinners. Where is she?"

The noise of footsteps hurriedly descending the stairs could be heard all the way in the kitchen. "Sounds like she's on her way out with people she loves", Harrison said. He used the opportunity left by the Father's momentary distraction to slam his left foot backwards into Joseph's shin.

Joseph stepped back against the kitchen's large dishwasher while Harrison spun around, pulling his handgun on the cult leader. The Father, meanwhile, trained his own gun at the sheriff. "Huh", Harrison said, "I thought you said that I was going to die if I tried anything, asshole. We both know if you really wanted to kill me right then and there, you would've done it already. Who's the weak one now, dickweed?"

Joseph motioned to his gun with his eyes. "There's still time", he said.

Surprisingly in response, Harrison let his own firearm drop sideways in his open palm before dropping the weapon onto a pile of dirty assorted cookware sitting on the kitchen island directly behind him. "How about you drop your piece and we settle this like a couple of men?" Harrison asked with an immense level of conviction in his voice.

The Father gave Harrison an intimidating smile in retort to his proposition. He lowered his own handgun and placed it on top of the dishwasher beside him before lunging at the sheriff with a wild and uninhabited level of ferocity.

Harrison immediately pulled himself up onto the large, sturdy hanging pot rack just above his head. With both feet now up in the air, he propelled himself forward like a pendulum, at which point his feet connected with the center of Joseph's chest. He then let go of the pot rack's metal supporting bar and dropped back to his original position in front of the island, assuming a traditional Ju-Jitsu fighting stance.

Now severely angry from his opponent having landed another blow, Joseph kicked his foot forward toward Harrison's slightly lowered head, at which point Harrison grabbed the edge of the man's boot-clad right foot with one hand and forcing his fist-clenched opposite hand squarely into the cult leader's exposed groin.

The Father then somewhat crumpled at the infliction of his manhood-bruising injury, at which point Harrison took the opportunity to do a sort of backward leapfrog roll over his opponent's hunched back and force Joseph's arms behind his back in a cuffing position.

"How will your lineage continue now, you crazy Peggie fuck?" Harrison said as he used one hand to grab his handcuffs from the leather pouch on his left hip.

Before he could snap the first cuff onto him, Joseph surprised Harrison with a backward elbow to the face, which instantaneously collided with the sheriff's nose and broke it. He then spun around, facing him and flung open the door of the large dishwasher. The maniacal cult leader then produced a very sharp eight-inch chef's knife and raised the implement high over his head, charging toward the injured sheriff.

Harrison just barely had time to wipe the leaking blood from his now broken nose to realize that Joseph was coming toward him with the knife. He sprung himself back upright into his fighting stance just in time to propel a roundhouse kick at Joseph, the connecting kick knocking the dangerous knife out of The Father's hand. The weapon flew behind Joseph and clattered to the floor just beside the dishwasher.

With Joseph temporarily thrown off by being so abruptly disarmed, Harrison saw an opening and harnessed all the anger and pain that the cult leader and his malicious band of followers had made him and the people of Hope County feel. He then let out a very primally guttural martial arts yell and threw his right palm forward in a stellar demonstration of the Iron Palm maneuver. His palm soon collided with Joseph's chest, using relatively the same amount of brute force one would use to bust through a concrete brick with their bare hands.

Joseph Seed almost immediately had all the air in his lungs immediately forced out of him by Harrison's severe blow. He coughed violently as he experienced a very hasty shortness of breath, gasping for air that was no longer there for him.

Harrison rose back up to a stand and grabbed a dish rag to try and staunch the bleeding from his broken nose. "What's the matter, Joseph?" he asked in a somewhat taunting tone, his voice constricted from his nose being pinched shut by the rag. "Are we feeling a little short of breath? A little anxious or, maybe, restless? I bet you feel like your heart rate and blood pressure are shooting down to dangerously low levels by now, huh?"

The sheriff tossed the rag aside and looked The Father squarely in his increasingly pale-stricken face. "Well", Harrison continued, "Just so you know, I landed a pretty crushing blow to your chest just now, and all those symptoms you're now feeling as well as what I'm sure is an overall impending feeling of doom is caused by what's called a rapid onset hemothorax."

Joseph continued to cough and gasp violently as his heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure kept on depleting. "Your lungs are filling with blood, pal", Harrison said, "and pretty quickly, too. I bet you'll be choking pretty soon."

As if on cue, Joseph began gagging and choking for what little life he had left. A leakage of blood and mucous from deep in his lungs then emanated out his mouth. "At least…" The Father hoarsely uttered between coughs and gags, "You all saw the power of Eden. You'll all see the Gate one day."

Harrison shook his head. "No, Joseph", he said, "That Gate is for you and your family. I'm not an expert on the afterlife, but I can't imagine what you all had planned for all those followers of yours is anything like what we all get to experience when we die."

Joseph slowly collapsed, resting himself against the kitchen island. His breathing slowed to basically nothing and his eyes rolled back into his head for the last time.

Harrison knelt beside the defeated cult leader and checked for a pulse, finding nothing. Rapid footsteps were then heard, and Sergeant Asher, Deputy Hudson, Deputy Pratt, Deputy Xander, and Deputy Michaels appeared in the doorway of the kitchen's rear door. Asher was the first to make her way inside, looking first to the corpse of the deceased Joseph Seed and then to Harrison.

"Is he...?" She asked anxiously, her voice trailing off.

Harrison nodded. "He's gone, Abby", he said, "It's over. Where are the Dodds?"

"Kevin was able to sneak Amelia and his parents out of the building and take them to the Sacred Skies Youth Camp", Asher said, "They're safe."

Harrison nodded again. "Everything secure outside?" he asked.

"Yeah", Asher replied, "Twelve Peggies dead, fourteen in custody. Agent Donovan took Marcie Jean to be booked and processed at his FBI office. Naturally, Noah Deveraux and his agents wanted to go along with them. They're on their way now."

"Good", Harrison said, "Could you do me a favor, kid?"

Asher nodded. "Anything dude", she said, "Name it."

The sheriff motioned to the other officers standing in the open doorway. "Have these guys secure the rest of the property and then call me an ambulance. I need to get the fuck out of here."

The Sergeant chuckled with a charming smile and helped her boss and longtime friend up off the floor and assisted him out of the hotel.

A Hope County Volunteer Fire Department ambulance sat waiting out in front of the hotel. The wounded Harrison was comfortingly greeted by paramedic Gina Barlow, who helped him inside the vehicle and got him situated on a gurney. Asher sat on a bench seat just to the right of the gurney as Gina pulled the rear doors of the ambulance shut from the inside and the ambulance drove off.

"Now", Asher said to Harrison, "Since it's just the three of us in the back of this thing, are you really okay, Troy?"

Harrison reached over and took his close friend's hand. "I will be, kid", he said, "I guess a better question would be 'why does your entire uniform shirt smell like old liquor and stale beer?'"

Asher snickered and gave her friend a warm smile. "Do yourself a favor and don't ask!" she said.

_[Author's Note: Joseph Seed may be dead, but our saga isn't quite over yet, ladies and gentlemen! As I mentioned in my previous note, I'm going to add on a little epilogue to tie up a few loose ends and flesh out a full conclusion to our story. I promise that won't take me as long to write as this finale did! Thanks so much to all of you who have kept up with "Respite" to this point!] _


	20. Epilogue

**Epilogue: The Sun Still Rises in Big Sky Country**

_Residence of Troy Harrison  
Fall's End  
2 Days Later_

With Joseph Seed finally dead and the Project Eden's Gate cult finally having been fully dealt with in one form or another, Hope County Sheriff Troy Harrison finally took some time off to recover at his home in Fall's End. Sergeant Asher had volunteered to step up and serve as Hope County's Acting Sheriff for those few days while Harrison was away, with Deputy Joey Hudson serving as the department's interim second-in-command.

The turmoil of the entire chaotic ordeal was finally behind him, and now all Harrison had to do was relax and recover from the broken nose inflicted on him by the now deceased maniacal cult leader, as well as the obvious emotional trauma caused by the entire state of affairs. Harrison, clad in a set of plaid fleece pajamas, laid on his living room couch and somewhat uncomfortably held a large ice pack to his swollen nose while watching old sitcom reruns on TV.

The recovering sheriff's time of relaxation seemed to be momentarily interrupted by heavy knocking on his front door. Harrison frustratingly groaned as he set the ice pack down on his coffee table and got up off the couch, making his way toward the door.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"It's Denny Donovan", the voice on the other side of the door replied.

Harrison opened the door to find that it was indeed FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Dennis "Denny" Donovan standing on his porch. However, he was surprised to notice a very smartly-dressed, appealing Hispanic woman standing with him, dressed in a black pantsuit. Harrison nodded to Donovan.

"Denny", Harrison said.

"Hey Troy", Donovan replied, "How're you feeling, man?"

Harrison shrugged his shoulders. "As you can probably tell", he said, "My nose has obviously looked better." His eyes shifted to Donovan's female companion. "Who's your friend?"

The woman stepped forward and extended a hand to the sheriff. "Sheriff Harrison", she said, "My name is Sarah Montero. I'm the Assistant US Attorney assigned to prosecute Marcie Jean Deveraux."

Despite his obvious fatigue and lack of energy, Harrison graciously reciprocated Ms. Montero's handshake. "Despite the circumstances", he said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Montero. Please come in." He opened the door wider and stepped back a bit so Donovan and Montero could enter.

The FBI agent and his attractive federal prosecutor colleague made their way into Harrison's living room, with Harrison sitting back in his place on the couch. Agent Donovan, meanwhile, took a seat on the recliner adjacent to Harrison, while Ms. Montero seated herself in the armchair facing the coffee table.

"The US Attorney General has decided to make a full-fledged federal case out of Marcie Jean's overabundance of misdeeds, I take it?" Harrison asked Montero.

Sarah Montero nodded affirmatively. "We're seeking the full court press for both the Florence double homicide and the fraudulent scheme she employed to spring Joseph Seed from the penitentiary", she said, "All in all, she's looking at life plus twenty years."

Harrison gave the prosecutor a very relieved grin. "Great", he replied, "So, what more do you need from me?"

Denny Donovan let out a sigh. In fact, it was the very distinctive type of sigh that one would give when trying to find the ideal way to give somebody bad news. "You should know something, Troy", Donovan said in a very stoically straightforward tone, "The consequences of all that hard work you and your deputies did investigating and taking down the cult has opened a veritable Pandora's Box of corruption and hullabaloo that extends around the globe."

Harrison shrugged his shoulders. "That sucks", he replied, "but that's not exactly an earth-shaking revelation, Denny. As you remember, Willis Huntley and his people at the CIA warned us that the cult's influence extended far beyond Hope County."

Montero then produced an enlarged photograph from within a file folder that she had on hand. The image was of a middle-aged black man in a Chicago Police uniform. "Do you recognize this officer, Sheriff?" she asked.

Harrison took a considerable moment to look at the photo before replying. "Yeah", he said, "Officer William Horton", he said, "We called him 'Billy'. He was the Evidence Control officer at my old Chicago PD district station. Abby Asher and I used to see him a lot, but I don't think either of us really got to know him that well."

"We have it on good authority that Officer Horton has fallen in with Project Eden's Gate", Donovan said, "the FBI's anti-corruption division in Chicago had been investigating him for about a year after a bunch of evidence that he was responsible for had come up missing. Their subsequent inquiry lead to the discovery that his daughter, May, had joined in with Joseph Seed and the Peggies."

"So, he was in a situation that was sort of similar to Noah Deveraux", Harrison commented.

"Yes", Montero shakily replied, "Only we don't think that Horton continued to act in good faith once he found his way to the cult. We think he joined up with them, and we also think he was the cult's inside source from within the CPD that was feeding them information about the 'Baby Augustine' case."

"Based on?" Harrison asked curiously.

"As best as we can tell", Donovan began to explain, "Once Horton somehow figured out that the Bureau was investigating him, Horton seems to have left Chicago and its police department entirely behind. He stopped showing up to work and missed so many days that the higher ups at CPD eventually felt that they had no other choice but to fire him."

"Technically then", Harrison said as he caught on, "He wasn't even an active duty CPD officer anymore. I take it he was a no-show at his apartment either, right?"

Donovan shook his head. "No", he replied, "His overdue rent piled up to the point that his landlord tried to formally serve him with an eviction notice, to no avail, of course. Therefore, he padlocked the apartment and it's been sitting empty ever since."

Harrison took a moment to take everything in. "Wow", he said after a few seconds, "So old Billy Horton just up and took off without a trace, eh?"

Montero produced another photo from within the file folder and slid it across the coffee table toward Harrison. "Not so fast, Sheriff" she chimed in, "Agent Donovan tells me that you're not the biggest fan of Willis Huntley and his condescending disposition, but he did provide us with some solid intel on Horton."

Harrison picked up the photo and studied it carefully. The image was of several Peggies protesting outside of a storefront building on what looked to be a gloomy, overcast day. William Horton stood in the back row of protesters; his face circled for clarification. "When was this taken?" he asked.

"Remember that British CIA guy we met at the farm that night?" Donovan asked, "Richard Pedwick? It was one of his operatives who took that picture while spying on an anti-abortion rally outside a women's health clinic in London. That was on June Tenth of this year, at exactly One-Thirty in the afternoon. See Big Ben in the background?" He pointed to the famous landmark clock, which was quite visible in the background of the photograph just beyond where the protesters were standing. The face on Big Ben did indeed display the correct time of 1:30.

"Is Horton in the wind now?" Harrison asked.

Donovan grinned, seemingly out of alleviation. "Thankfully", he replied, "No. Scotland Yard apprehended him and several of those other Peggies you see in that picture and charged them with inciting a riot. They're also being held for trying to carry out a terrorism plot, so Horton and those other whackos will be rotting in a British prison for a while."

Harrison nodded with an equal amount of relief. "Good", he said, "So, what ever became of Jessica Wyley, that teenage girl Asher and I figured out was a plant sent in by the Peggies?"

"My office took her deposition last week", Montero replied, "The AG agreed not to charge her with anything in exchange for the testimony she gave during the deposition, so she won't have to testify in open court. The AG also agreed to have Jessica and her parents enter the Federal Witness Protection Program, so the US Marshals put them on a plane the next day, and that was that."

"That's great", Harrison said, "One less worry. What about the state's inquiry into the actions of our department? Have you guys been kept in the loop about that?"

"I spoke to Governor Albertson and Representative Stanley in a teleconference call this morning", Donovan said, "They wanted me to relay the message that you've all been officially cleared of any wrongdoing in regards to the Project Eden's Gate case. You and each of your deputies will be receiving a certified letter later in the week confirming this determination." Donovan extended a congratulatory hand to his friend.

Harrison gladly shook his good friend's hand with a smile. "Awesome", "Hey, Denny? By the way, man, thanks so much for all your help in this. And that goes for you and your office, too, Miss Montero."

"Anything for a good friend", Donovan said, "It's in the oath we all took, bro."

Harrison nodded in agreement with the FBI agent's sentiment. Once Donovan let Harrison's hand go, he shook the federal prosecutor's hand next. "It was our pleasure, Sheriff", Montero said, "I'm just glad we could help you guys finally bring this Eden's Gate ordeal to a close."

Donovan got up from his seat. "Any other questions for us, bud?" he asked Harrison.

Harrison thought for a moment. "Have you guys heard from Noah Deveraux at all?" he asked.

Donovan nodded. "Yeah", he replied, "He sends his regards. He said that he and his agents were on their way back to Helena, but he said that, after tomorrow, he'd be taking some time off to handle what he called 'an important family matter'."

_U.S. Bureau of Prisons  
Federal Transfer Center  
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma_

While Sheriff Harrison was being briefed by Donovan and Montero back in Montana, Chief Noah Deveraux and his mother, Dorothy Ray Deveraux, entered the Visitor's Entrance of a federal detention facility, essentially located in the epicenter of Southwest Oklahoma City. This facility was home to 1,257 female inmates who were being held in custody pending either transfer to another facility, as the name implied, or their respective trial dates in U.S. District Court for federal crimes.

Dorothy Ray Deveraux was a petite, stoutly built grey-haired woman in her mid-seventies whose perceptible left-sided limp necessitated the use of a cane for her to walk. She nervously held her son's hand with her right hand and propelled herself quite impressively with her cane on the left.

"Are you sure she'll be able to recognize me, Noah?" Dorothy said, her prominent Louisiana accent showing to be very evident in the way she spoke, "It's been so long, darling, I mean I don't know if we're doing more harm than good by coming all the way out here."

"I hope so, Mama", Noah replied, "But that's why we're here. You need to know that she's alright after all this time, and all that's happened."

The two of them soon reached a security checkpoint, at which point Noah displayed his law enforcement identification to the federal correctional officer standing by the metal detector. "Two visitors to see Marcie Jean Deveraux", he said, "Inmate number five-four-seven-two-three-M."

The officer, a tall and muscular Hispanic gentleman, took an extra moment to study the Chief's badge and ID. "Your name's Deveraux, too, I see" he said, "Relatives?"

Noah nodded. "Yes sir", he replied, "Marcie Jean is my sister, and this is our mother." He motioned to Dorothy with his eyes.

The officer gave a nod in return. "I see", he said before looking to Dorothy, "Do you have any ID on you, ma'am?" he politely asked.

Dorothy reached into the breast pocket of her denim jacket, removed her leather billfold, and presented it to the officer. The officer, in return, briefly flipped open the billfold and studied the Montana driver's license within before handing it back to her with an appreciative nod.

After the necessary walks through the metal detector and subsequent security pat-downs, Noah and Dorothy were led by a female officer to the Contact Visitation Room located in the rear of the facility. In actuality, the large room was nothing more than a glorified common area with its steel-built circular tables and attached stools. The officer led the mother and son to one specific table in the center of the room.

Marcie Jean Deveraux was escorted through a side entrance five minutes later with an officer standing on either side of her. She was dressed in a neon orange prison jumpsuit with a waist chain secured just above her hips that was connected two a pair of large handcuffs around both wrists. Her hair looked to be quite disheveled and stringy, and her face had gone pale over time.

The two officers helped her to sit in a stool facing her long-estranged brother and mother, and after a warning that they'd only have ten minutes, stood off to a side corner of the room. All that Marcie Jean could do for the first few minutes was stare at them and scrutinize them closely as if she was someone visiting a zoo and observing the animals.

"Hello Peanut", a tense Dorothy finally managed to say.

The taciturn façade Marcie Jean had managed to keep intact for the last 13 years finally managed to break at the sound of her mother's voice. She lowered her head and inconsolably bawled as Dorothy held her daughter's hand. With that, Marcie Jean Deveraux was no longer just a murderer, a fugitive, a cultist, or a semi-mythical female boogeyman. She was a daughter and a sister, and despite whatever else, she was a human being.

_Lamb of God Church  
Holland Valley Region, Hope County  
The Next Morning  
4:30 AM_

Sheriff Troy Harrison had been without a full night's sleep for roughly two days due to the nagging ache and pain of his broken albeit healing nose coupled with some pretty chilling nightmares of all that he had seen, dealt with, and fought during the resurgence of the Project Eden's Gate cult. No longer having the once overpowering desire to drown his sorrows in alcohol as he had years ago, he dressed up in an ordinary grey sweatshirt, sweat pants, and a heavy jacket. He then got in his car and made his way to the cemetery in front of the Lamb of God Church.

Roughly half an hour remained until the sun would rise over Hope County, so Harrison used his police flashlight to scan the names of the gravestones as he walked through the foggy, cold cemetery in the dark of the very early morning. He passed by several gravestones belonging to several fallen Hope County military veterans, seemingly all of them with an American flag draped over them, until he came upon the grave of fallen Deputy Chris Shelby at the back end of the cemetery lot. He knelt before his dearly departed friend's final resting place and adjusted the basket of flowers once left by Shelby's mother, placing it more neatly on the edge of the stone.

"Hey Chris", Harrison said out loud, "I just wanted to let you know that it's finally over, buddy. The Seeds are all dead, bro. It's done. As happy as I am to be able to tell you that, I'm reminded of how hard it is with you not actually being here with all of us to enjoy the victory."

He sighed deeply as he suddenly got choked up and felt tears start to stream down his face. "I don't know", he continued as he voice started to break, "I guess I just wish that I had reacted more quickly that day at the jail. I could've fired first instead of you or something, I don't know."

The grieving sheriff sniffled and wiped his eyes before sighing deeply. "The good news is", Harrison said, "I've decided that I'm going to stick around here for a while. It's so funny. With all the jobs I've had, all the cities of lived in, and all the badges I've worn, this one feels the most like home, like where I'm supposed to be, you know?"

Harrison was soon startled by the sight of headlights illuminating the gravestone from a distance coupled with the sounds of a vehicle turning into the church driveway. He turned and was comforted to see the white 1980 Chevrolet pickup truck belonging to the Kellett Cattle Company pulling in. Sergeant Asher got out of the driver's side, while Joey Hudson got out of the passenger side. Harrison was surprised to see Adam Xander and Dakota Michaels come around the front of the truck, as they had apparently been riding in the flatbed.

"What'd you guys do?" Harrison said with a smug tone, "Decide to have an all-night tailgate party and not invite me?" He grinned.

Asher handed the sheriff a Styrofoam convenience store coffee cup filled with hot coffee, at which point he gave her a nod of gratitude. "Apparently", she replied while motioning to the others, "None of these guys could sleep, so they showed up at my farmhouse at four a.m. I realized I wasn't sleeping well either, anyway, so we went by your house and you weren't there, so I had Dispatch triangulate your phone."

Harrison smirked. "Nice detective work, Sarge" he said.

Joey Hudson then noticed the tear marks on her boss' face. "Hey Sheriff", she said, "You look like you've been crying. You okay?"

Harrison nodded. "Yeah", he said, "I'm fine, Joey, thank you. I just decided to come out and have a little chat with Chris and I guess I got a little weepy."

Adam Xander decided to lighten the mood. "So, I guess the question is", he said before taking a sip from his own coffee cup, "What's next for us? What do we do now?"

Harrison rose to a stand as he sipped his coffee. "Am I to assume you're all agreeing to stay on board here in Hope County?" he asked pointedly.

Asher looked around at Harrison and all the other deputies. "Hell yeah", she said, "I'm not going anywhere. I just barely got the dent out of my ass from all that Chicago PD desk duty."

Harrison chuckled. "Good, Abby", he said, "Glad to hear it." He looked to Joey Hudson next. "Joey? How about you?"

"I promised you that I'd follow your lead once the cult was gone", Hudson replied, "I intend to continue keeping that promise. I'm in."

"Me too", Adam Xander said, "You're a really great boss, Troy, you've always been a good leader. I'm glad you brought me out here."

Harrison nodded. "Cool, bud", he said, "I appreciate that." He looked to Michaels next. "Dakota?" he inquired, "You staying on, bro?"

"Absolutely", Michaels said, "I wasn't about to have my daughter come visit me in that congested-ass city we were in, anyway. I'm definitely more at home here."

Harrison raised his coffee cup, prompting the others to do the same. "It's settled then", he said, "Here's to Hope County."

"To Hope County", Asher said.

"To Hope County", said Hudson.

"To Hope County", Xander said.

"To Hope County", Michaels said.

Harrison checked his watch. "Hey", he said, "Where's Pratt?"

"He texted me a little while ago", Asher replied, "he said he wanted to go into the office early and catch up on some paperwork before shift. He'll meet us there."

Harrison looked beyond his friends and noticed the sky. "Hey guys", he said while pointing to the sky, "Look at that!"

With that, the four deputies turned and looked at the sky. A huge, beautifully picturesque sun rose up over the horizon.

_[Final Author's Note: That's it, guys! I hope you all enjoyed the story. Just so you all know, I'm planning to write a pair of prequel stories detailing Harrison's career starting from when he first departed from the FBI, through his time in Chicago with Asher, and all the way through his time on the West Coast until he gets the opportunity to come and work in Hope County. However, due to a very important matter that's going on in our family right now, I'm not sure when I'll be able to start writing the next story. But the stories definitely WILL be made and posted! Thanks again to all of you ladies and gentlemen who had read this, reviewed, and whatever else! I so appreciate you!] _


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